Ex nihilo
by A-not-so-social-butterfly
Summary: "So…so…the not-so-dead rat man is going to Hogwarts to kill your orphaned godson?" "Yes." "And rat man is going to kill him because he's working for You-Know-Who and only you know that he's alive and not actually dead?" "Yes." "And if you don't break out of here and kill rat man he'll kill Harry Potter?" "Yes." Elena whistled. "That's rough, man." Sirius/OC fic, AU, Azkaban
1. Chapter 1

The guard along the back wall was scowling at her through the slits in her barred window. Sure, she'd just spat right in his mid-twenties, mummy's boy face, but that was to be expected: it was on her file and everything, a clear warning to all officers that she had a ready mouth full of saliva and a deadly aim.  
Seeing him wipe her spit off of his puckered up little chin made her giggle, and the sight of his stony face as he watched her cackle only made her double over with increased mirth.

Her laughter wasn't the only sound in the freezing, rain spattered room. There was a beautiful symphony of shouts and screams that was music to her ears from the cells around her. It was only a dry, tired voice from the tiny window into the cell next to her that subdued her.  
"You gone mad too?"  
She ran over to the window, upturned her waste bucket and stood on it, cursing her short stature for the fifth time that day.  
She couldn't see the man who had spoken from the next cell, but his assumption annoyed her.  
"What makes you think I've gone mad?"  
"Well, what are you laughing at, then?"  
"I spat in baby's face."  
There was a dark laugh. "Fair enough, then."  
"Do you know why they've got actual people here today instead of the floating bin bags?"  
"Our old favourite Cornelius Fudge is paying us a visit."  
"Oh really?" She smirked. "Do you reckon he'll give me his paper? I miss doing the crossword."  
"If he stops outside my cell I'll ask him then, how about that?"  
"How gentlemanly of you, sir."  
"Oh I'm no gentleman."  
"Well I'm not exactly a lady."  
"I've never liked those society ladies much myself."  
The man stood up from where he was sat under the small window, and stepped back so his whole face was visible, so he could see her more clearly. He had long, tangled black hair, though it was so grimy with dirt that it could have been bloody luminous yellow and she wouldn't have known. He was as thin as her, face gaunt, hollow like a skeleton, but there was an air about him, of elegance and arrogance. He must have been handsome, once.  
"Who are you then?" She demanded, brow furrowed, and he scanned her face intently, as if looking for something.  
"Sirius Black." He held his hand out, turning it so that it fit through the small gap in the wall, and she glared at it.  
"Black? Are you one of them Death Eater blokes?"  
"Death Eater? You think I'd follow that murderous bastard? Yeah, no."  
She studied his face for signs of deceit, but all she could see was contempt, and fury, so she shimmied her hand through the gap to shake his.  
"Elena Munroe."  
"It's a pleasure to meet you, Miss Munroe."  
"Oh and you, Mr Black."  
They mocked each other's' lofty tones, and shook hands, once, firmly.  
"So what did you do to end up here?"  
He tried to sound casual, but there was a sudden edge to his voice.  
"I was framed for a murder." Elena didn't try to conceal her anger. "Left here to rot without even a fricking _trial_."  
"That's funny," He said in a tone that conveyed no amusement. "Same here. Just mass murder for me."  
"Okay, you win."  
"Not a great prize, though." He gestured to the walls, to the screams.  
"Bloody idiots, they are, aren't they?"  
"I'd used stronger words than that." Sirius muttered darkly, running his hands through his matted hair.  
"Can't believe I'm still sane, to be honest, and not licking my own piss off the floor like the poor bloke in the cell on the other side of me. I reckon he'll last a week?"  
"Five days."  
"You're on. Loser gives up bread ration."  
"You're welcome to it. I think I broke a tooth this morning."  
"Crappy bread is better than no bread."  
"A broken tooth is better than dead."  
"Hear, hear."  
She toasted him with an imaginary glass and knocked back the non-existent wine, wishing for the burn to fill her with something that would make her feel somewhat alive.

"That's enough of that!"  
The guard blasted Elena back from the window with his wand, and she flipped him the bird, dragging her upturned waste bucket across the floor with a hair-raising screeching sound and perched on it, chin propped up on her hand like she were anywhere but locked up in Azkaban for a murder she didn't commit.  
"Silence, now, when the Prime Minister comes along here! Anyone who speaks without being spoken to will not have food for a week. Is that clear?"  
A few curse words were the only response.

Elena could hear the Prime Minister before she could see him, firstly because her eyesight was awful and they'd taken away her glasses, and secondly because he had a loud pompous, _obnoxious_ voice that made her want to spit at him too.  
Although it caused her mild irritation as she couldn't do whatever she pleased in her cell as usual, with the human guard standing there, the absence of the Dementors of Azkaban was _definitely_ a bonus. For once, her mind wasn't crammed full of her own nightmares, forcing to relive the torture of the day her mum died, the day she'd found the body in the shack, and the day that she…the day that she…  
Elena didn't want to think about it anymore, and so revelled when the Dementors weren't there to enforce their disgusting, inhumane punishment of trapping them in their own bad memories. She felt lighter than usual, happier, or as happy as she could be, locked up in Azkaban.

As the Prime Minister and his parade of proudly dressed protectors came strutting down the corridor, she stuck her tongue out at them. It was a childish gesture, really, but she felt like a child chucked in a prison to rot. Besides, it wouldn't earn a punishment, just a fiery glare from the guard she'd earlier moisturised with her saliva. The Prime Minister looked disgusted as he scanned her quickly, and she flushed as she imagined her appearance. She wasn't exactly vain, all vanity had been stripped from her months ago due to the knowledge she wouldn't be showering until she was released (and she wasn't going to be released), but Elena Munroe had been brought up to always look her best, and the fact that the sight of her was repugnant made her angry.

Cornelius Fudge waddled along to the next cell, and Elena heard his surprised exclaim. "That's…Sirius Black!"  
"Minister!" Sirius' voice was suddenly low, deep and pleasant, almost respectful. "Have you worked out a date for my trial yet?"  
Fudge made a few blustering noises, and Elena could imagine Sirius smiling, but a smile like her own, a smile laced with fury.  
"I'll take that as a, 'we've still got an unfair court system', then, yeah?"  
A few more choked noises were the only response.  
"Say, do you have a paper, Minister?"  
"I…a paper?"  
"Yeah, a newspaper. The Daily Prophet, or something? Don't you control all of the stories they publish, anyway?"  
"I…yes I do have a newspaper, Black. What does it matter?"  
"Have you finished with it? I'm sure they make you read it over before they publish it, don't they, so you can edit out all the truthful parts?"  
"I…yes, I have finished."  
"Could I have it then?"  
"What on earth for?"  
"Erm…to read? It's a bit of new reading material! It's pretty fricking boring in here, you know? And I miss doing the crossword."  
"Ah…yes…fine…"  
There was a rustling as the paper was shoved through the bars by an impatient Fudge, and then the party moved on to the next cells.

"Told you I'd get it." Sirius approached the window, flicking through the paper, and tore out the puzzles page, passing it through the window. Their hands brushed again, and Elena ached at the human contact for the second time that day, it being warm and comforting but almost alien after months of no sensation of anything except stone and water and rough cloth and the cold metal of the bars.  
"Why thank you Mr Black. I am forever in your debt."  
He started to respond, and stopped, and Elena frowned.  
"You alright?"  
" _He's going to Hogwarts…"_ The man sounded horrified, and Elena peered into his cell through the window, going on her tip-toes on the metal bucket to see him.  
"Who's going to Hogwarts?"  
"It's none of your _business_." He snapped, scrutinising one of the pages of the newspaper, and she huffed.  
"Is too. Who's going to Hogwarts?"  
"Peter Pettigrew." He grumbled darkly.  
"What, that fat dude who got murdered eons ago? He's not going anywhere, mate."  
"No…he's not dead…they just thought I killed him…"  
"Wait, _you_ killed him? And all those Muggles in the street?"  
Elena sounded horrified.  
"No, that was him…look, it's a long story-"  
"Well I'm not going nowhere, am I?"  
"True. God I should not be telling you this. Okay, so basically, once there were four boys…"  
"This isn't a bloody fairy tale, is it? If it is I don't want to hear it."  
"Oh shut up and listen."

 **What did you think?! Did you like it? I like it! (Not that that matters)  
Don't forget to follow, favourite and review!  
Fly xx  
**


	2. Chapter 2

"So…so…the not-so-dead rat man is going to Hogwarts to kill your orphaned godson?"  
"Yes."  
"Who just so happens to be Harry Potter."  
"Yes."  
"And rat man is going to kill Harry because he's working for You-Know-Who and only you know that he's alive and not actually dead?"  
"Yes."  
"And if you don't break out of here and kill rat man before he can kill Harry you'll lose your godson like you lost his parents, your two best friends?"  
"Yes."  
Elena whistled. "That's rough, man."

"Yes, thank you Captain Obvious."  
"Anytime, now, how are we going to escape?"  
" _We?"  
_ "You seriously think that I'm going to let you escape you without me?"  
"Well I am _Sirius_ …"  
"I am going to bludgeon you to death with my shit bucket."  
"If you can reach up to hit me. What are you, four foot one? Four foot two?"  
"Your skull will make a lovely crunching noise as I break it."  
"You're practically a dwarf-"  
"I will make lipstick out of your blood."  
"Or maybe a goblin-"  
"I will skin your corpse and use it to make a coat."

"My corpse…" He muttered suddenly. "That's _it_."  
"That's what?"  
"I could pretend to die!"  
"There is _no way in hell_ they will believe you have died so soon, and so spontaneously. They just saw you, alive, sarcastic and kicking."  
" _Damn it_!"  
"I could die, though?"  
"How would that help us?"  
"Well…the thing is…I'm an Animagus."  
He laughs, a genuine, surprised laugh. "Oh really?"  
"Yeah, but they know, of course, because I'm registered, so they put preventative charms on my cell to stop me transforming. But if the Dementors thought I was dead and took me outside I could transform…but that wouldn't get you out…any ideas?"  
There was silence from the other side, and Elena sighed.  
"Sirius? Died yet?"  
No answer meant that she climbed up onto the bucket again from where she'd been pacing, mind whirring, and looked down in the cell. A big black dog sat panting in the middle of it, scrawny but friendly-looking.  
" _What the_ _fu-"  
_ Sirius transformed, and bounded up to standing, letting out a bark-like laugh.  
"I'm unregistered! I can slip out, and pull you through, or something…what's your Animagus? Tell me it's not something ridiculous, like a flamingo or some shit-"  
"Yes, it's a flamingo," Elena rolled her eyes. "No, I'm a kitten. Black and white and orange. Quite unassuming, but next to your dog…?"  
"No one'll think twice if we pretend to be fighting all the time."  
"Uh, _pretend_?" Elena scoffed darkly. "I still haven't forgotten how you called me a goblin."  
"Oh alright then dwarf!"  
"Shut up you flea-ridden mutt!"  
His laughter was short-lived though, as although the guard had gone long ago, the Dementors had returned, and their presence alone drained both of them of the ability to see the positive side of anything, both of them cold and dark and despairing. At least they weren't alone anymore. They had a plan, and they had each other, even if both were reckless and stupid.

Elena had gotten used to not knowing the time, but it still aggravated her that it always seemed dark and stormy on the island prison, so she had to guess when night had fallen. Sirius was asleep in the cell next to hers, she could hear by his breathing, and it wasn't particularly reassuring, because she felt more alone than ever. Despite his faults and her irritation, it felt good to have here be a person who didn't lick their own urine off their cell floor to talk to. Especially if that person was also going to help her to escape.  
" _He's…he's at…he's at Hogwarts, he's going to…he's going to kill him…I have to…he's at Hogwarts…he's…he's…Lily…James…no James, no no no…Remus…its full moon…stop…stop!"  
_ Sirius let out a strangled cry, and Elena bashed her bucket against the wall, wincing as it made a loud crashing noise although her intention was to wake him up.  
"Mate, what the hell are banging on about?"  
"I…oh… _piss off..._ I was sleeping…"  
"Not well…you were having a nightmare, weren't you?"  
"Does it matter?" He snarled, and Elena ignored his tone, adopting a gentler manner of her own.  
"I'm sorry, it just seemed…sorry. I know I wish I had to wake me up from my nightmares, that's all."  
"Well…fine. Fine."  
"I won't do it again then."  
"No…no, do. It's just it's the only time I see them…in my dreams. And then I wake up, and I'm in this hellhole, and I'm just…"  
His voice was thick with emotion, and Elena felt a surge of anger, of hate for the Ministry and the Dementors and, well, basically everyone.  
"We're going to get out, remember? We're going to get out."  
"Tomorrow."  
" _Tomorrow?_ "  
"When they come around to feed us, I'll transform. They won't know I've left, they'll just think I've gone insane like the rest of them, we'll wait until they've passed and I'll help you out…then you can transform and we'll work out what to do from there."  
"We're really going to do this?"  
"I couldn't save Lily and James." He sounded regretful, but also fuelled by a spark of hope. "But I can save Harry."  
"We'll save him, Sirius." She nodded forcefully. "You won't lose him too."  
"And then I'm going to commit the crime I was imprisoned for."  
"You're… _what_?"  
"Pettigrew betrayed them. I'm going to kill him."  
"Well, okay then, you do that."  
"Oh I will."  
The menace in his tone frightened her, but there was no time for that.

"How do I know I can trust you?"  
Elena's voice was small, and quiet; she sounded like a little girl again.  
"I guess you don't."

The rain lashed the bars and the waves crashed into the rocky cliffs surrounding the island. Elena cracked her knuckles, stretched out her aching muscles and clenched her fists, feeling her magic swell up under her skin, prickly and powerful, as the cold wind blew into the cell and engulfed her in its roar.

 **Okay sorry I was too excited to not post another chapter.  
I hope you like it!  
Fly xx**


	3. Chapter 3

Elena had slept fitfully, but a massive _crash_ woke her up as the Dementors swept around delivering food. Swearing under her breath, she held her middle finger to the window, and could hear Sirius laughing as he put down his waste bucket from where he'd hurled it at the wall.  
"You ready, dwarf?"  
"As ready as I'll ever be, mutt."  
Elena's door opened just a crack as a tiny morsel of bread and a cup of scummy water were pushed through, and then was slammed shut again. She forced down the wooden bread, downed the bitty water and kicked the remains away as Sirius in dog form crouched outside her door.

She approached the bars and turned sideways, curving in on herself to try and fit through the bars, and although it hurt and squeezed her painfully, with Sirius' jaws clamped around the hem of her dress and tugging on it with all his might, she finally squirmed her way through and out onto the miniscule ledge outside, where the wind buffeted her and nearly made her lose her balance.

Ever since her youth Elena Munroe had had a rather rational fear of heights, since she had fallen off a cliff in Dover at the age of ten. Her own wandless magic had saved her, but the steep drop that fell straight to the sea less than a metre to her left was frightening reminiscent of that terrifying afternoon and froze her in her tracks.  
Sirius barked, which Elena roughly translated to meaning "Get it together, dwarf."  
"Okay, okay, hang on…"  
Screwing up her eyes, Elena pictured herself as the kitten in her mind, and _pushed_. There was a second, and then the wind was beautiful against her whiskers, and she could taste everything, from the dog beside her to the sweat of the prisoner in the cell on the other side of her. Her eyesight was wonderful and sharp and she felt perfectly balanced, tail jauntily high and still.  
The best thing was that Dementors couldn't affect her like this, and all she felt was sweet relief and the hope that this plan could actually work.  
Elena followed Sirius down the rocky cliff, both of them jumping down onto impossibly small ledges and notches in the stone, and they came to a stop above the waves, which ravaged the base of the drop like monsters trying to claw their way up to consume them. Elena hesitated, but Sirius took one step forward, gave one victorious bark and jumped into the water.  
There was minute of heart-wrenching still in the sea below, and then the dog surfaced, climbing back up onto the rocks and shaking, and Sirius transformed, calling quietly up to her.  
"Come on, then!"  
Cats can't exactly panic, but if they could, Elena would be. This journey was bringing to light her two biggest fears, both onset by the accident in Dover years ago: heights, and deep water.  
"Munroe? Come on!"  
He frowned at her, looking impatient, and Elena mentally shook herself, then jumped off the ledge and plummeted into the depths of the water.  
The cold of the water shook her to the bone, and in her shock and fear she transformed, hair flying up and covering her eyes, just adding to the darkness under the racing water. It was almost peaceful, under the water, with the screams and yowls from the animals in the cells muted by the pressure on her ears. Then the current caught her: she wasn't fast enough to stand up and so it swept her towards the shore.  
Elena couldn't even scream, although the wind did, as she was rushed up and hit the rocks. Pain shot through her spine as it slammed into the rocks, and Elena felt it rip through her skin, her own warm blood mingling with the freezing sea.

Strong hands wrenched her upwards, up onto the ledge, and shoved her onto it, which hurt, but not as much as his probing hands as they tore the top of her dress and swore at the gash there.  
"It looks alright. Can you swim?"  
"S-Swim?" Elena's teeth were chattering, and she clenched them so that they were still, ignoring the ache deep in her jaw.  
"Yeah, can you swim?"  
"Umm…sort of…"  
"I'll take that as a no." He sighed, frustrated, and Elena shivered in the rain, sopping wet, hair dripping.  
"You should go."  
"What?"  
"Go, now. They'll raise an alarm soon enough, and I'll distract them. You have to go save your godson. I don't have anyone to go to. You should go, Sirius."  
He looked torn as he stared down at her. He almost looked angry.  
"We're in Azkaban. There's no time to be fricking noble. Just transform and get on my back Munroe. Come on."  
"Look-"  
Sirius transformed and barked at her, so she transformed too, reluctantly, and jumped up onto his massive hairy back, trying her best not to scratch him as she dug her paws into his fur. Thankfully the months in Azkaban had stripped all of the meat from her and left her skin and bone, painfully skinny, skeletal, so she was barely a burden as Sirius plunged into the icy waters and started a slow but steady dog crawl off towards the horizon.

It was impossible to count the length of time they were at sea for, only that the storms began to lessen as they got further away and Sirius started to sink under, clawing at the water like it was pulling them under. When the shore came into sight Elena forgot that she couldn't swim and slipped off Sirius' back because _Merlin we're going to be free_.  
The usual panic set in but it was easier to swim as a cat; she was lighter and more buoyant, cradled by the salt in the water, hissing at the temperature and paddling along besides Sirius.  
They both collapsed on the shore, but Sirius bounded up and ran up and down the beach, barking victoriously, splashing about in the waves. Elena transformed and lay back on the wet sand, laughing a little hysterically.  
"We did it!"  
Sirius flopped back on the grey sand next to her, grinning, but they were both hard-core shivering, teeth chattering. Elena knew they were in danger of hypothermia if they didn't dry off and get somewhere warmer quickly.  
"We need to find out where we are, see if we can find the nearest town and steal some essentials."  
Sirius' face hardened. "We need to get to London."  
"Yes, I know, but we'll die of hypothermia in a week if we don't get some dry clothes, shelter and some form of warmth pretty soon."  
"Fine then." He stood up, and so did she, pulling her dripping hair back off of her face. "Let's go."  
They staggered off, away from the water's edge, and their grey silhouettes made them look like ghosts in the fading light.

 **What did you think? Did you like it? Let me know!  
Don't forget to follow, favourite and review  
Fly xx**


	4. Chapter 4

Quaint little houses by the sea with shop fronts painted with French words explained their location in the south of France to Elena pretty quickly as she padded into the darkening town, nimble paws making no sound on the pavement. They crept as animals towards one of the back gardens, where a washing line strung up with colourful flags of fabric blew in the cold wind. Sirius' loud pants frosted the air in front of his long canine snout, and Elena gave him the look of disdain that only felines and middle-aged women can achieve as they rustled through the hedge. Elena tore down all of the clothes that she could reach, and Sirius snagged the line so that it looked like it had blown down. There was a sound of movement from inside so they scarpered, back to the beach.  
"Okay, what have we got here, then?"  
Sirius and Elena quickly sorted through the small pile, and Elena picked out the women's underwear and a man's shirt, which looked far too big but would be warmer than her soaked dress, and Sirius took similar things, then picked up the other garments and held up the lingerie and a pair of shorts that looked way too small. "We can burn these, as fuel. And these," He held up the sheets. "Will be good for sleeping on. Not a bad idea, dwarf."  
Elena rolled her eyes and ran off around the rocks to change, peeling off her stained, threadbare striped dress with a happy vengeance and drying herself on the t-shirt, then pulling it on. As predicted, it fell to below her knees.  
"Looking good, Munroe."  
"Shut up Black."  
Elena snapped at him as she dropped her dress into the sand, and he added his own prison clothes to the pile.  
"I wish we could burn them."  
"We'll have to set for drowning them. Hopefully they'll think we drowned too."  
"Mhm."  
Elena watched her worn, hated clothes drift out to sea and be consumed by the currents.  
"We need to find a wand." Sirius said, suddenly business-like, "And somewhere to sleep that's hidden away, preferably as far away from here as possible."  
"Alright, so we go… _that way_?" Elena pointed to the left down the coast, where the top of the cliff branched out to rolling fields, bordered by fences. "That looks like farmland, so there's probably a barn or a shed or something nearby we could sleep in?"  
"That way, then."  
Despite transforming being as natural to her as breathing, feeling her small feline body run across the fields, free and released, the wind brushing any shackles off her movement as she crossed the fields.  
Sirius was a lot faster than her in his long, wolfish body, but she enjoyed her speed, rubbing against the long grass and tasting the air.

There was a small tool shed that looked like it hadn't been used for decades in the corner of an overgrown meadow, wood weak and bending, the sweet swell of rot permeating the air like a perfume. Its door was locked but they climbed in through the broken window and jumped into the cramped space, which was sparse of tools except for a hedge trimmer and a spool of rope, both of which were covered in such a thick layer of dust that it looked like a shovel would be needed to remove it.

Elena shifted back into human form, and fell to cross-legged seating on the wooden boards, leaning back against the wall, breathing faster than usual. She was hungry, thirsty, cold and tired, but she was free, and that was what mattered.

"One of us should stay awake," Sirius murmured as he sat down silently, brushing his hair out of his eyes in a move that looked well practiced, usual. "In case they try and search here."  
"You sleep first," Elena nodded at him, trying to hide her yawn and failing. "You swam basically the whole way to France."  
"Yeah but I'm older than you."  
"How do you know?"  
"How old are you?"  
"Twenty seven."  
"I'm nearly thirty four."  
"Okay…but that's irrelevant. If anything, I'm younger. I should be able to keep going for longer. Go to bed, grandpa."  
"I'm physically bigger."  
"Maybe, but I'm shorter, so I need less rest."  
"That's bullshit."  
"Shut up grandpa."  
"Grandpa?"  
"Yes. Go to sleep."  
"…I'm a guy?"  
"So?"  
"So…um…I don't know, I-"  
"If you're going to be sexist, I'd stop right there."  
"You're a registered Animagus, so if people come they'll know who you are, but they won't know who I am, so I can distract them while you run, then I'll catch up with you later."  
"It would work the other way around. I could even run while you're asleep, so when they come in they'll just see you and I'll be long gone by then. There won't be any delay."  
"Oh shut up and go to sleep Munroe."  
Smirking, Elena laid down on the wooden floor and tried her best to get comfortable in the cold.  
"Oh shit, I forgot, how's your cut?"  
"Stings, but its fine. I've had worse."  
"Oh, Mr Tough Guy, are you?"  
"Miss Tough Girl, actually."  
Elena flexed a non-existent muscle, and he grinned, looking down at her.  
"So, do you have husband back in England?"  
"No, do you?"  
"What, have a husband?"  
"If that's what you're into…?"  
"Nah, and no wife either."  
"That sounds lonely."  
"What, and your life isn't?"  
"You don't know anything about my life."  
"Tell me about it then. No husband, then, boyfriend?"  
"I was framed for my boyfriend's murder." Elena tried to sound blasé, but an ominous note in her tone made the shed look suddenly darker, scary. "Now, can I go to sleep, Black, or are we playing Twenty Questions?"  
He fell silent, looking vaguely apologetic in the dim light, but Elena was sure there was a grin on his thin face.

Trying to sleep was difficult when she was so cold, and still damp from their swim earlier, and her teeth were chattering so forcefully that her whole body trembled. Goosebumps erupted across her almost translucent skin.  
"Cold?"  
"How could I be, when it's practically _tropical_ in here?"  
Sirius laughed again, and handed her one of the sheets from the washing line, which he'd had, rolled up, tucked into his shirt.  
"I am _so_ much warmer now, _thanks_."  
"Nice to know I could be of service, madam."  
"Shut up, Black."  
"Well I'm sorry it's not five star service, Munroe-"  
"Wait, we need to conserve body heat."  
"Isn't that some sort of weird innuendo?"  
"Shut up and get down here, I don't want to freeze to death."

 **Don't forget to follow, favourite and review if you liked it!  
Fly xx**


	5. Chapter 5

Elena awoke the next morning curled up against the snoring Sirius Black, and poked him sharply in the ribs.  
"So much for keeping watch, sleepyhead."  
"Piss off. I'm tired."  
"We need to find something to eat."  
"I'll eat you if you don't leave me alone."  
"Yeah, good luck with that."  
"I won't need it."  
"Will you not?"  
"Most definitely not. I could take you blindfolded with my arms tied behind my back and no wand."  
"Well then, I hope you're not attached to your legs."  
Their playful banter filled Elena's insides with a warmth that hadn't been kindled for a long time, as she ripped the sheet out of his grasp, rolled it up and held it out impatiently for him to tuck it back in his shirt.  
"Fine, fine, I'm getting up."  
"It's about time!"  
"Alright, alright, chill out dwarf, what are we going to do now?"  
"Steal a wand."  
"Okay…how?"  
"I hadn't got that far!"  
"What a _great_ and _detailed_ plan you've created, Munroe."  
"I will claw your eyes out while you sleep."  
"I'd like to see you try!"  
"Is that a challenge? I wonder if your precious girlfriend'll still want you when you've got two massive holes in your face."  
"My _precious girlfriend_?"  
"Yeah. I take it you've got one, or had one, before you were framed for mass murder and all that-"  
"No, not really…? Why d'you think that?"  
"I don't know, you've got that air about you. Like you were handsome and you knew it. Drove girls mad, didn't you?"  
He's too busy coughing in disbelief. " _Was_ handsome?"  
"Mate, you're like a skeleton."  
"Well you're not exactly runway model yourself."  
"At least I don't have _fleas_."  
"At least I don't have boundary issues."  
"At least I'm not…a boy!"  
"That was a quality playground insult Miss Munroe."  
"Be ready to say goodbye to your eyes Black."  
Sirius laughed as he stood up and stretched, head brushing the roof of the tool shed.  
"So what are we actually going to do?"  
"If you're such a genius, why don't you come up with a plan, then?"  
"I have a plan."  
"Oh really? And what is it?"  
"Wait for you to come up with a plan."  
"It's practically _revolutionary_ -"  
"Ha, ha."  
"Well I'm not going to come up with one. You're going to have to do it."  
Sirius started to respond, looking outraged, and then stopped.  
Elena shivered.  
A horrible cold steeled over the pair, and they fell into a stunned shocked silence as long, almost inaudible, rattling breath, over their heads.  
 _Dementors.  
Run.  
_Sirius kicked the rotting wooden door and it flew off its hinges, so they burst out of the shed and sprinted across the grass.  
"Come on! Faster!"  
Elena raced after Sirius as he yelled, but her muscles cramped and seized from months of no exercise and she tripped, sprawling, breathless onto the grass.  
The Dementor swooped down, and she shied away as its clammy, disgusting fingers clasped her chin and forced it upwards. Horrible images flashed through her head, slipping off the edge of the cliff with a scream of pure fear, her mother collapsing onto the carpet, her boyfriend's blood blossoming out of his head like a grotesque flower, spiky, gnarled, twisted-  
 _STOP!  
_ Something clambered up onto her chest and barked, snarling, growling at the Dementor, and Elena could just see Sirius through her half-closed eyelids. The cold lessened slightly, and Elena could have cried with relief, but there was no time, because Sirius was tugging at her wrist, jaws biting into her skin.  
Elena struggled to her feet, staggered forward and transformed.  
The Dementors swerved back, confused, and the pair wasted no time in speeding across the field, down the rocks to the beach and into an alcove where the waves swept in and splattered them with salt water.  
They stopped, still for a moment, the cat and the dog, sheltered in the cave, and when there was no sign of the Dementors returning, they shifted back to human again. Elena kept her composure for less than a second before huddling up against one of the rocks and breaking into loud, painful sobs.

Sirius watched her for a moment, looking almost angry with her, and then sat too, making sure to give her space.  
"You alright?"  
"Thanks for saving me," was her only response as she attempted to pull herself together, wiping her eyes and taking a deep breath, though her lip wobbled. "Sorry."  
"What've you got to be sorry for?"  
She shrugged. "You should've run. They wouldn't have found you. You could've gotten away."  
"What, you think I should've left you behind? What kind of man do you think I am?"  
"I don't know, one who's hopefully interested in staying alive."  
"But not at the expense of you dying!"  
"Why not? Why do you care? We've only known each other for like, a day!"  
"Would you have gone back for me?"  
"Well, yeah-"  
"So why can't I?"  
"Because you've got someone to go back to!" Elena was breathing hard, eyes passionate, shining with tears. "Because you've got someone to save, you've got someone you needs you, you've got someone who cares that you exist! You've got someone to live for, Sirius, and I don't!"  
There was a pained silence, were the only sounds were Elena's choked breaths as she stifled back tears and the crashing of the waves as they ravaged the sand. Sirius shook his head as if to clear his ears of water, took a step forward, looking torn, then crouched and hugged her. She began to cry freely then, the warmth of the contact painfully familiar and yet unfamiliar at the same time.  
"You have got something to live for, Munroe."  
"Mhm?" She sniffled, wiping her nose on the back of her hand. "What?"  
"I need someone to make the plans! Do you really think I'd survive ten minutes on my own without your incredibly detailed and thought-out plans?"  
"Oh shut up." She punched him weakly on the arm, and he fell back onto the sand, mock crying.  
"Oh no…thou hast wounded me…I am dying, I must be dying…tell my family I love them…"  
"Drama queen." Elena snorted as she stood up, straightened the stolen and crumpled t-shirt and held out a hand to pull him to his feet. "Mention I cried and I'll rip your throat out."  
"Duly noted."  
Faint with hunger, the pair transformed and made their way up the cliff again and returned to the town, impatient to eat and glad to have a purpose for the first time, for Sirius, in years.

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	6. Chapter 6

"So you reckon she's a witch?" Elena and Sirius were crouched behind a hedge, stomachs full from their hunting earlier. Yes, the thought of eating rats made her feel sick, but as a cat Elena could only feel her hunger, and had relished the food filling her achy stomach. Now she was rejuvenated, high on the thrill of their potential theft, and lost in the whirring of her mind as she calculated the best way to enter the house.  
"I don't just _reckon_ , Munroe, I saw her levitating her slippers earlier."  
"Fair enough. Now, how do we get in?"  
"Just try sneaking in?"  
"Nah, she'd probably see us. She may be old, but she's not blind."  
"Alright, it was just an idea. What've you got, Miss Mistress of Plans?"  
"You could distract her, and I'll sneak in."  
"Why couldn't you distract her and I sneak in?"  
"You're not exactly stealthy, mate."  
" _Excuse me-_ "  
"Ooh, shit on her lawn!"  
"What?"  
"Shit on her lawn and bark really loudly. Make a load of noise. When she comes out, I'll go in and grab her wand!"  
"Why do _I_ have to shit on her lawn?"  
"Because I nearly died early. Go."  
"I saved you!"  
"Technicalities!"  
Giggling, Elena waited until they had both transformed and then skulked off to lie on the top of the fence as Sirius stopped outside the house, grumbling and growling and did as she'd proposed.  
The ruckus he caused sent the elderly woman to her door with a few angry French words and her cane ready in hand. As she stepped out, brandishing her cane and shouting, Elena slipped through the crack in the front door and scampered lightly into the living room, where the wand lay on the sofa, obviously thrown aside hurriedly after Sirius had created a scene. Picking it up in her mouth and struggling to keep a grip on it, Elena snuck out of the house and escaped behind the hedge.

The woman was still shouting angrily at Sirius who ran off with a pained whine, and then followed Elena slowly on the ten minute walk back to their cave. When they reached it, Sirius transformed, wincing as he rubbed his ribs. "She hit me with her cane!"  
"Never mind that, I got the wand!"  
"I think they're broken," Sirius moaned, stretching out, and Elena rolled her eyes, weighing the wand in her hand.  
"This feels pretty good. A bit heavier than my old one, but it's not too different."  
"Maybe I could one of those sheets as bandages…"  
Elena held out the wand, and spoke loudly and clearly. "Wingardium Leviosa!"  
The rock she was pointing at rose a few feet in the air, and Elena smiled incredulously, laughing a little. "Hey, it worked! Isn't that great?"  
"My turn!" Sirius lunged and snatched it off her, and she swatted at him, fighting to get it back. Elena didn't realise that she'd transformed until the big black dog that was starting to become a welcome sight tackled her to the ground. She pawed at his face and clawed at his side, and they rolled around the cave, snarling at each other and diving for the wand, shoving each other out of the way as they fought for it.  
"It's… _mine_ …" Elena shifted form again and elbowed the massive dog out of the way.  
"You…made…me…crap…on…a…lady's… _lawn_!" Sirius wrestled the wand off of her, pushed himself to his feet and held the stolen wand above his head, out of her reach.  
"That's not fair!" Elena jumped to try and reach it, but he waved it tantalisingly too high for her short stature, so she jabbed him in his bruised ribs so he doubled over then snatched the wand and laughed happily, victoriously. "Aha! I win! Now, heal the cut on my back, Black!"  
"Okay boss." He took the wand off her and traced it along the cut above her shoulder blades: Elena shuddered as the skin knitted together a little roughly, making it itchy and sore but no longer bleeding or as painful. "That alright?"  
"Yeah thanks."  
Elena reached around to touch the fresh skin on her back and whipped the wand out of his hand.  
"Are we going to Apparate to London, or Hogwarts, or wherever you need to go?"  
"It'll have to be in small jumps, though, and Side-Along."  
"And? Let's go then!"  
"Okay…" Sirius stood there, frowning impatiently, as Elena wrapped her fingers more securely around the wand, gripped his arm tightly and _squeezed_. The familiar but horrible, sucking feeling Apparation filled her senses as they appeared in a deserted street behind some wheelie bins: Elena's old street. Her house had been number five.  
Coughing and retching, the pair fought the urge to vomit as their bodies adjusted to Apparating again, and then Elena handed the wand to Sirius.  
"Urgh…You know where you want to go, I take it?"  
"Yeah, but we should probably not jump too often. There's two of us and it's not even one of our wands."  
"Okay then, what do you want to do?"  
"Where are we?"  
"My old street. My house is up there."  
"Will there be someone else living there now?"  
"I doubt it. No one wants to live there, since…since the murder."  
"Right."  
They transformed and padded across the road. Number Five had an overgrown front garden, and the front door was hanging off its hinges. Elena slipped in, and Sirius followed her, gazing curiously around with his sharp canine interest, cocking his head at the graffiti on the walls, left by daring vandals, she guessed. Once pristine, clean and perfect, the sight of her old house in disrepair and derelict conditions made Elena angry, but also full of regret.  
 _If only she'd called the police, or the Ministry, or anyone-  
_ The carriage clock on the windowsill was smashed, probably with a rock, but it still ticked haphazardly, every so often coughing out a weak click, wheezing and broken. In a move that looked almost simultaneous, the pair shifted form, and Sirius waved the wand in a long arc, murmuring under his breath. " _Salvio Hexia. Protego Maxima. Protego Horribilis. Repello Muggletum. Repello Inimicum."_  
"What are you doing?"  
Elena watched as light blue mist erupted from the tip of the wand and settled around the outside of the house, shimmering, and then faded.  
"Protective enchantments. Muggle-Repelling Charms, stuff like that. They won't be able to track us or the wand to here."  
"Awesome." Elena nodded gratefully at him, and he jerked his head towards the stairs.  
"Can I go up? There still might be some useful stuff up there."  
"Yeah, sure. I'm pretty sure I left some tins in the kitchen in case of an emergency, so I'll go see if I can find them."  
"Cool."  
They parted ways, Elena's head flashing full of painful memories as she walked into the kitchen and opened the bottom cupboard under the oven. It was empty, as she'd expected, but the false bottom she'd installed years ago was intact, and when she pulled it out there were stacks full of tins in there. Pulling them all out, Elena checked the best before dates on the base, and then, satisfied, separated them into sweet and savoury tins, glad to have a task to perform. In all there were seventeen cans: two with tinned potatoes, four with tomato soup, five with chicken soup, one with baked beans (that made Elena gag), two with tinned pineapple and the last three with tinned peaches. It was a pretty good haul, and Elena estimated they'd have, best case scenario having on meal a day plus hunting as their Animagi, just over a week's worth of food. However now they had a wand they could duplicate the tins and their contents, so it could last them a lot longer than that.  
"Hey, Munroe!" Sirius shouted down from upstairs, and Elena stood up, a tin in each hand.  
"What?""  
"There are a load of clothes and a mattress and a bunch of stuff up here!"  
"I've got enough tins to last us maybe a week as well."  
"Good call, coming here, then."  
Sirius jogged down the stairs, clothes over his arm, and chucked some at her.  
"Here, this were in the wardrobe. I'm guessing they're yours?"  
"Yeah, thanks. Ooh, I'm going to go have a bath!"  
Sirius chucked her the wand and she caught it, running up the stairs, straight across the landing and past the ajar bedroom door because if she was going to have one rule while staying in her old house it was that she was _not_ going into that bedroom.  
The bath was full with steaming water in no time thanks to magic, and Elena locked the door, laid her old clothes out on the floor and slid into the beautifully warm water, sighing. Never had she been so grateful for having a bath in her life. She washed her hair with the wand and cleaned her body, hating how skinny she looked but loving the feeling of being clean for the first time in months. Exhausted, Elena knew that if she stayed in the intoxicating warmth of the bath anymore she'd fall asleep, so reluctantly climbed out and wrapped herself in the too small, ripped towel that had been dangling from the wall like an odd species of spider.

After drying herself, Elena held out the dress Sirius had picked for, and smiled. It hung loosely on her arms and around her bosom, too big and billowy, but when she pulled the strings at the back as tight as they could go it nearly fit, which was good enough for her. Rubbing her hair with the towel in a pathetic attempt to dry it, she braided it back into a long plait that brushed her waist and sighed at herself in the mirror.  
Sirius was scraping, literally _scraping_ , the dust off of the old sofa, which had obviously also been vandalised, with holes in its cloth exterior and a spring poking out at one end.  
"Need a hand?"  
Elena held up the wand, laughing, and he nodded, but his eyes were on her in the dress.  
"You look alright, Munroe!"  
"Thanks Black. The bath's still full if you want one? I cleaned the water."  
"Nah, I'll have one tomorrow."  
" _You're very welcome_." Elena mumbled, and Sirius grinned unapologetically.  
"Thanks."  
Sirius flopped down on the sofa, and Elena ran to get the cans from the kitchen.  
"What d'you want? Cold chicken soup, cold tomato soup, peaches…?"  
"I'll have the chilled tomato soup, madam."  
"Of course, sir."  
Smiling, she passed it to him, took a chicken soup for herself and cut a hole in the top of her can before passing the wand to Sirius so he could do the same. Despite the unfortunate temperature, it tasted great for someone who hadn't eaten anything apart from bread for months.

"I'm going to go to bed." Sirius finished off his soup and stood up. "You coming?"  
"Did you just ask me to go to bed with you?"  
"Well if that's what you want…"  
Elena threw her empty can at his head, and he dodged, chortling, and went to go up the stairs, looking down at her. "You're not coming?"  
"I don't like the bedroom."  
"Alright then." He vanished up the stairs, his footsteps shaking the ceiling over her head, and then appeared a minute later, dragging the mattress behind him. With a mischievous smirk he threw it over the banister, and Elena shrieked as she jumped out of the way.  
"You little _sod_!" Swatting at his head, Elena laid down on the mattress and curled up in the foetal position, trying to get comfortable.  
" _You're welcome, Elena."  
_ "Oh shut up Black."

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	7. Chapter 7

Early morning sunlight streamed through the window, casting a long ray over the sleeping girl on the battered old mattress in the middle of the front room. Her body twitched and shuddered, face contorted with fear, trapped in the clutches of a nightmare.

 _"_ _Jay? Are you there?"  
Elena climbed the stairs, calling out in a concerned voice. Behind her, the front door was ajar, creaking eerily in the wind. On the mantelpiece downstairs the clock was chiming three in the afternoon, but it sounded like an alarm, a warning.  
"Jay? Hello?"  
Trembling fingers clasped around her wand, Elena peered into the bathroom, and then pushed up their bedroom door, where her boyfriend was standing, apparently looking out of the window, in the centre of the room. She relaxed.  
"Jay?"  
He turned around slowly, and she'd never seen him look so scared, face pale and pinched with fear as he mouthed two words at her, the last two words he'd ever say.  
"Elena. Run."  
Elena backed up, horrified and confused, eyes darting around for a sign of movement, of a threat.  
There was the sound of footsteps in the room, and Jay shouted in pain as he fell forward onto the carpet, bleeding from his head. Elena shrieked and dropped to her knees in front of him, and her foot caught the hem of what felt like fabric. The Invisibility Cloak slipped off of the man's face, just for a second, but Elena just caught the sight of his face.  
He Disapparated with a crack, and Elena screamed._

"Elena!" Sirius was shaking her, eyes worried. "Are you alright?"  
She blinked rapidly, eyes misting over with tears, and pushed her sweaty hair out her eyes and stared at him, face dangerous, struggling to keep control. "Have you ever killed anyone, Sirius?"  
"I…what?"  
"Have you ever killed someone?"  
"I definitely didn't kill those Muggles, if that's what you mean-"  
"No it's not what I mean."  
"…what do you mean, then?"  
"You said you worked for this Order, working against Voldemort, didn't you?"  
"Yeah…"  
"Did they ever ask you to kill anyone?"  
Her voice was heaving with emotion now, swerving up and down in pitch like a boat on the ocean.  
"Elena-"  
"Did they ever ask you to kill someone named Jayson Nott?"  
She forced it out, choking on the words, and Sirius' face went ashen.  
"If you're talking about the Death Eater's son-"  
"I'm _not talking about the Death Eater's son_ , I'm talking about my boyfriend! The boyfriend I was framed for murdering. The boyfriend you killed."  
Sirius' eyes widened, incredulous, panicked. "That was _you_ -"  
"You killed him!" Elena screamed, whole body shaking. "You killed him!"  
"Elena I'm sorry, I didn't know-"  
"You killed him!" Elena snatched the wand up from the floor. "I'll kill you!"  
"Elena, calm _down_ -"  
"Don't you _dare_ tell me to calm down, you _bastard-"  
_ "He was a Death Eater, Elena! He was going to kill you!"  
"I _don't care_!"  
"Elena, stop!" Sirius lunged up, grabbed the wand and threw it onto the sofa, holding her arms tightly. Furious, she tried to wrestle out of his grip, but his hands were like iron around her wrists. "Listen to me!"  
"I don't _want_ to listen to you!"  
"Well you're going to! I didn't know who he was, I was told that we had strong evidence that he was planning a terror attack on London. I killed him to save hundreds of lives!"  
"I didn't want to save hundreds of lives. I wanted to save _him_!"  
"I know Elena, I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."  
He loosened his grip on her wrists, and Elena wriggled out of his hold, snatched up the wand and pointed it straight at his heart. " _Avada Kedrava."_

* * *

Elena Munroe jumped awake for real this time, shouting, and Sirius caught her arm from where he was sat, cross-legged on the carpet. "You alright?"  
"I…umm…I…nightmare. I'm…I'm fine." Elena gasped, sitting up, drenched in sweat, heart pounding.  
"Sure?" Sirius was watching her with concerned eyes.  
"I…yeah…bathroom-"  
She staggered up the stairs, ignoring his alarmed stare, and burst into the bathroom, slamming the door behind her and collapsing on the tiled floor, shuddering.  
"Oh my God…" She cried a little bit, then pulled herself together, sniffling, but still hugged her knees and rocked herself back and forth like a child.  
She'd known it was Sirius. Known since the day they'd broken out.  
She also knew that her boyfriend had been a Death Eater.  
She'd wanted to kill Sirius.  
She was worried that she might.

"Elena?"  
"Yeah?"  
"Can I have one of these tins?"  
"Sure." She called down, trying to steady her voice, and stood up. She needed to be sure before she confronted him. If she did.  
She had to.  
She needed to.  
Didn't she?

The bedroom looked just the same as the day it had happened- Same red curtains, same cream coloured walls, same hand carved fireplace. The bed frame and the ruby red rug were gone though, probably sold off to hungry buyers who didn't care that it could be cursed. Elena took another step forward, resisting the urge to screw her eyes up so she didn't have to look, and then almost vomited.

A large brown stain stained the carpet, a permanent reminder of Jayson's dead body falling to the floor. His dying breath, rattling and desperate, and his final shout, injected with regret and sorrow.

The sight of his eyes, deep blue and swimming with tears haunted her. The memory of their laughter and their smiles, their kisses and their embraces floated in the air like a ghost. Elena knew that dust was mostly made up of dead skin, and therefore a lot of the dust in the room would be him and his skin and his hair and his breath, dancing in the sunlight shining in through the window.

Sirius shouted something from downstairs, and Elena shook her head, trying to shake off the memories as a dog shakes off water.

"What?"

"You coming down or what?"

"Yeah, yeah I'm coming!"

Elena took one last look at the room and backed out, jogging down the stairs.

"What were you doing, retiling the bathroom?"

"It's none of your business."

"Alright, easy Munroe. There's a hole in the landing, it looks pretty unstable, I was going to see if I could find that red rug to cover it."

"Red rug? How did you know I had a rug like that?"

Elena knew exactly how he knew.

Sirius paled. "I, um, most houses have some sort of rug, and your colour scheme is red, so..."

"Okay...well I haven't seen my old one...someone probably nicked it...cheeky bugger..."

Sirius looked relieved at the change of subject. "Yeah...bloody cheek...people these days..."

Elena stared at him quizzically, but he looked away, busying himself with the rest of the clothes.

He'd changed into a pair of Jay's old jeans, and that made Elena's blood boil.

"Those jeans were my boyfriend's, you know."

Sirius gulped, looking ill.

 **Sorry for the weird format at the end, idk what happened there!?  
Hope you liked it!  
Fly xx**


	8. Chapter 8

"We're going to have to move on soon."  
"Why?"  
"They'll probably work out I'd go here. Besides, you want to go to London, don't you?"  
"Yeah…then Hogwarts-"  
"Hogwarts? You do know how difficult that will be?"  
"Yes, but Pettigrew's there, we need to stop him…"  
Elena marvelled out how quickly his ' _I'_ had become a _'we'.  
_ "Shouldn't we just be trying to get out of the country? Stay low?"  
"No! We have to save Harry!"  
 _"We_ don't need to do anything. _You_ need to save Harry. _I_ don't."  
"Get out then!"  
"This is _my_ house!"  
They stood there, breathing heavily, glaring at each other. Sirius spat on the floor and stormed out, transforming mid-stride as he ran nimbly out of the house.

Elena kicked the carpet, swearing angrily under her breath about stupid mutts, and sat down on the mattress. There was no doubt in her mind that he'd come back, but his temper tantrum cost time. "If he… _really_ wanted to…get to…Hogwarts…" Elena grumbled, scratching at the carpet with her fingernails. "He'd stop _moping_ …and _moaning_ …and actually _go_ …geez…"  
In her mind, Elena knew rationally that the smartest thing to do right now would be to kill Sirius, dump his body in the ocean, take the wand and run. The Ministry would assume that they'd both died, and wouldn't be on such high alert, so she could sneak out of the country and start a new life for herself abroad. Also, she'd get revenge for him killing her boyfriend.  
Elena knew she wouldn't do it. Firstly, she wasn't a killer. That was just another thing the Ministry had got wrong. Secondly, goddamn it she was too nice. Stupid, stupid Elena Munroe was going to abandon her hope of ever living under the radar and escaping being caught and sent back to Azkaban for a _guy_. Her father would be rolling in his grave, even if she wasn't doing for the reason he'd expect: there was a thirteen year old boy who was going to die if she didn't help save him.

Cursing her compassion, Elena stood up and snatched the wand up from the floor, turning to go upstairs to use the toilet, when the familiar chills washed over her, filling her mind with that horrible, draining dread. She froze, shaking, as darkness fell on the road out of the window.  
Elena transformed on instinct, picking up the wand and scampering down the stairs. Despite that she was in her Animagus form, Elena was still cold to the bone, fur standing on end as she ran up to the front door, and nosed at it.  
 _Damn you Sirius._  
He'd closed the door behind him.  
Elena could hear the Dementors swarming around the house, breathing rattling in the almost silence. Needless to say, it was terrifying.

Then it suddenly got louder, as if it was in the house. Elena let out an angry, outraged hiss.  
 _The broken window in the kitchen.  
Shit._  
The Dementors swarmed into the house, swooping into the living room, up the stairs, and into the hall. They were only in there for minutes, but to Elena it felt like hours. Her feline heart was beating so loudly she was sure they could hear it, and were going to investigate. At one point, one of them peered down at the trembling cat huddled against the door with a wand in its mouth, and Elena thought she was going to scream or explode with fear, but they left without doing anything else. Elena watched them glide out of the open window and felt their presence lift off of the street, but it was still ten minutes before she could summon up the courage to transform back into herself again.

A sudden, frantic scratching at the door made her jump out of her skin, shrieking, and there was an urgent bark outside: _Sirius_. Elena yanked open the door, fell back against the wall so that she wouldn't be visible from the street beyond, and then slammed the door shut as Sirius ran into the hallway and transformed, eyes wide and frightened.  
"Elena there were Dementors-"  
"Yeah I know, they came into the house!" Elena spat, anger taking the place of fear. She was shaking violently as adrenaline coursed through her veins, and she felt weak and vulnerable. "And _you_ shut the door behind you, so I couldn't get out!"  
Sirius looked concerned for a second, but his reply was angry, like hers. "If you hadn't been stupid-"  
"If you hadn't stormed out like a freaking lunatic-"  
"If you hadn't driven me to leaving-"  
"If you hadn't shut the door behind you like an idiot-"  
"If you hadn't have said we shouldn't save Harry-"  
"If you had've listened to me…"

They both stopped, and crashed together in what looked like a painful hug, fury fading into regret. "I'm sorry I shut the door."  
"Good."  
Elena squeezed him tightly, then let go, stepped back and pushed her hair out of her face.  
"We need to move on."  
"Where to?"  
There was a second of pondering, urgent silence.  
"Lily's sister…" Sirius looked up suddenly, face alive. "It was um…Prewett…number four…number four…Prewett Drive? Privet Drive? I went there with her once…Dumbledore would have sent Harry to there…they're his next of kin…what date is it again?"  
"Um…end of July? Start of August?"  
"So it's the summer holidays…he'll be there…"  
"We can go…but what are you going to do? Pop into his bedroom, just casually say hi? Your breakout is probably all over the news. You're one of the most notorious mass-murderers the wizarding world has ever seen-"  
"I didn't kill those people." Sirius sounded irritable. Elena bit back her desired response, which was: _you did kill some people, though, didn't you Sirius? Like my boyfriend, for example?  
_ "Yeah, okay, but that's not the point-"  
"I just want to see him, and make sure he's okay."  
"How do you even know that he's in danger?"  
Sirius pulled out the scrap of newspaper from the pocket of his trousers. It was wrinkled and faded, obviously dried and being magically held together after their 'swim'. He pointed to a gangly by on the photograph, and at the rat on his shoulder. "Look at the rat."  
Elena took the paper and lifted it up to the light, squinting at it.  
"What?"  
"He's missing a toe."  
Sure enough, the fat rat was missing on his front paw, but Elena frowned.  
"So?"  
"He cut it off, didn't he?" Sirius sounded excited.  
"All they ever found of Pettigrew was his finger…"  
"Exactly!"  
"Okay…it could be Pettigrew…and?"  
"The article said that the rat's that boy's pet, and that boy attends Hogwarts, and he's in third year, and he's a Gryffindor…"  
"Okay, so Harry is in third year, but you don't know if he's in Gryffindor…?"  
Sirius scoffed. "Of course he's in Gryffindor!"  
"Why of course?" Elena was confused.  
"Both of his parents were in Gryffindor."  
"So? My parents were both in Slytherin but I was in Ravenclaw."  
"Yeah but…that's Slytherins for you."  
"Excuse me?"  
"Just…he's in Gryffindor, okay?"  
"Whatever you say…"  
"And so Harry will be in the same dormitory as this boy, and Pettigrew will have access to Harry."  
"But why would he kill him?"  
"What? He's one of Voldemort's followers!"  
Elena tried to hide her flinch before she spoke. "He'll be at Hogwarts, right? Right under Dumbledore's nose. You-Know Who vanished after the Potters died on Halloween. He would gain nothing by killing Harry, would he?"  
"But the thing is, he would! It was his betrayal that led to Voldemort's demise. The Death Eater's blame him for their master's disappearance. Faking his own death was clever, one to get the other Death Eater's off his back and two to avoid having to be subject to the Ministry's investigation that would most likely discover his guilt and my innocence. But killing Harry? Completing their master's final mission? They would welcome him back with honours! He would be a hero! He would be worshipped, and protected. He was never one to stand on his own two feet, Peter." Sirius sounded bitter, angry, but there was a note of wistfulness in his voice, of remembering. "He always wanted someone to look after him."

He turned his back on her, and Elena looked away, wanting to allow him his moment of weakness. When he righted himself again, his eyes were set, determined, and Elena nodded, voice sure.  
"Okay. Okay. Let's go."

 **I hope you liked it! They're finally getting somewhere!  
Fly xx**


	9. Chapter 9

"So…you're going to do what?"  
"Turn into a cat and see if I can look through the window."  
"And why?"  
"To see if you were right about this being where Harry lives."  
"And why can't I do it?"  
"Because you're too big to fit on a windowsill and you're terrifying. You look like the Grim."  
Sirius sighed as they hunched in the bushes, whispering out of habit despite the Silencing Charm around them. "It's not going to work."  
"I refuse to have this negativity within my eyesight." Elena flicked her a hand towards him, grinning, making her voice lofty. "Remove yourself at once."  
Sirius rolled his eyes and transformed, and Elena did too, stalking out of the bushes towards number 4 Privet Drive. It was dark, so Elena thanked her feline increased eyesight as she climbed up onto the fence and peered into the brightness of the window. The living room was empty, so Elena jumped lightly onto the roof and padded along the first windowsill on the left.  
A scrawny boy with spiky black hair was standing by his wardrobe, stroking the snowy owl perched in a cage that was balanced precariously on top of the uneven, wobbly shelf. Watching him intently, Elena was relying on her inhuman balance to keep her on the ledge, but when he slammed the wardrobe door shut, she jumped, yowling, and bumped into the window. Harry Potter jumped, whirling towards the window and lunging for his bedside table where his wand was sat, ready, and then relaxed as he saw the ginger cat clinging onto the sill desperately, hissing and clawing the air with her back legs. Fearing she was going to fall, Elena let out a pained _miaow_ , and Harry rushed over to the window, compassion obviously getting the better of him as it often did, opening it up and patting the bed, as if to say 'Come in, then'. Gratefully, Elena scrambled up and onto the bed.

"What kind of rubbish cat are you?" Elena hissed, batting at him, and he frowned.  
"Did you…I must be…urghh…" Harry sat down next to her on the bed, stroking her. "You're an awful cat, honestly. What kind of cat can't walk along a windowsill?"  
Elena hissed again, and he looked down at her, surprised. "Can you…can you understand me?"  
Deliberating, Elena took a second and then rubbed her head up against his knee, purring.  
Harry stood up, looking freaked out. "What, are you like some magical cat or something?"  
Elena padded across his bed, sinking into the duvet, and batted at his wand. The boy snatched it up protectively, and looked at her distrustfully. "You better not be a Death Eater coming to kill me or something. Being killed by a cat would be an awful way to die." Elena laughed, which sounded a bit like her trying to cough out a hairball, and cocked her head as she hurt angry yells from downstairs.  
"You need to go," Harry ushered her towards the window, pointing out into the night. "You have to go, quickly!"  
Elena tried to stall, but Harry practically pushed her out onto the windowsill and shut the window.

Sirius was waiting for her next to the fence, and let out a barking laugh. Annoyed, Elena stormed back to the bushes and transformed.  
"You…you _fell_ off the windowsill…are you even a _cat_?"  
"It is a lot harder than it looks and I don't think you realise that. "  
"You _fell_ … _off…_ the windowsill…"  
"I also met your godson, but you're too busy laughing at me to hear about that-"  
"You saw him? What happened?"  
"He let me in the window, and he worked out that I could understand him, and he was talking to me, and then someone shouted and he basically threw me out-"  
"But is he okay?"  
"I mean, I don't know, I was only in there for like a minute…the person downstairs sounded angry, but that might be irrelevant, it might not have been at him, or…"  
"It probably was directed at him, Vernon's a dick and Petunia was always a bitch to Lily, called her a freak. I doubt they're all sweetness and light to Harry. _Damn it_."  
"I'll go back later?"  
Sirius looked so disheartened and angry, Elena looked at him sadly. "I'll leave you alone for a bit. Keep the wand."

Transforming, Elena went for a walk down the road, wanting to hunt, her small feline body buoyed by the warmth of the evening, breeze ruffling her fur.  
-

The next morning, Elena woke as a cat, curled into the leaves. The sun was shining high in the sky, and the road was filled with the sounds of the gleaming car from number 4 revving up and speeding off down the road. Sirius was awake next to her, canine snout poked out and ears pricking up as the vehicle raced past them and turned the corner. After a quick discussion, Elena set off as a cat to check on Harry while Sirius' dog went off to hunt. A bit more practiced in climbing up onto the fence, Elena waited until the snowy owl and a brown owl had flown out of the window and then ran quickly along the fence, off-kilter, and leapt onto the windowsill. Harry was kneeling on the floor, piling cards into a gap in the floorboards. Elena scratched at the window, miaowing loudly, and Harry looked up, startled, then crossed to the window and opened it, moving out of the way so that Elena could leap lightly in.

"Hullo again."  
Harry sat down on the bed, and Elena arched her back under his hand, wanting to be stroked.  
"Guess what? My Aunt Marge is coming. She's horrible. Last time she came, she got her dog to chase me up a tree, and didn't let me down for _hours_."  
Elena purred sympathetically, and Harry sighed. "I've got to pretend I go to some _St Brutus' Secure Centre for Incurably Criminal Boys_ or some shit. It's ridiculous."

There was a shrill shriek from downstairs. "Get down here and welcome the guest!"  
Harry jumped, and stood quickly, yanking his hand away from the cat as if burned.  
"That's my aunt. You should go."  
Elena ignored his insistence, jumping off the bed and going to follow him down the stairs. He looked desperate, shooing her away. "Go! Shoo!"  
Elena meowed, frustrated, turned and jumped up onto his bed, curling up on his pillow.  
"Boy!"  
"Oh… _damn_ it…" Harry looked torn between getting rid of the cat and going downstairs to obey his aunt, then swore under his breath, jogged out and shut the door behind him softly.

A week passed quickly. Elena and Sirius, though they wouldn't admit it, were both disgruntled, tired and hungry. The original thrill of discovering Harry's whereabouts had faded, leaving Sirius filled with a harsh bitterness and deep-rooted anger that he couldn't see his godson. He snuck quick peeks through the window when he could risk it, of course, but it wasn't enough to quell his frustration, so he took it out on Elena with mocking sneers and snaps. His short temper was grating on Elena's already frazzled nerves, so she sought solace in taking long walks, picking up on everything around her and grateful for her Animagus' improved senses.

From what Elena had seen and heard of this 'Aunt Marge', she was a bitch. Simple as.  
Harry had stormed up the stairs grumbling for the past few days, ranting out his problems as he stroked the cat with a little more force than necessary.  
"-and then, she called my dad a-"  
"Boy! Get down here and help your aunt do the table!"  
"Oh for fu-"  
"Now!"  
"Can't you just piss off back to your bloody dogs?" Harry jumped angrily to his feet and stomped down the stairs, his footsteps shaking the house. A fit of yelling ensued downstairs, and Elena did something she hadn't down before then; she padded out, slipped through the gap in the door and stopped in the middle of the landing. The best she could make out between the smacks of the awful woman's handbag on something (hopefully not a person) was that they were having a special dinner to rejoice over the fact that the fat cow was leaving. Or something like that.

The forceful clattering of the cutlery and the loud rattling _slam_ every time someone shut the drawers suggested it was Harry setting the table, and Elena was so busy straining her ears to hear what he was mumbling as he did so that she didn't notice the blonde boy at the bottom of the stairs until he gasped. "Mummy, Mummy, there's a cat!"  
Elena swore mentally and retreated, taking a few steps back. The booming voice Elena presumed to belong to Aunt Marge rang through the house.  
"Don't worry, Duddy-poo, I'll set Ripper on 'em!"  
Elena's fur stood on end, but she couldn't smell any dogs, or any other animals in the vicinity.  
"Vernon took Ripper for a walk, Marge."  
"Course. You're right Petunia. Where is it, Duddy?"  
"On the landing!"  
Jumping back, Elena skittered across the carpet, slid into Harry's room, up onto his bed and then scrambled out of the window, onto the fence, then leapt onto the bins and down to the pavement.  
A large man with little neck and a rather spectacular moustache was straining to contain a massive, slobbering bulldog that was pulling impressively at its lead as they approached the front door. On seeing Elena, the dog let out a loud series of barks, rushing forwards only to be pulled back by his chain. The man gave an exasperated huff and kicked at Elena irritably.  
"Oi! Get out of it!"  
Hissing at the man and the furiously barking dog, Elena crept slowly backwards into the shadows behind the bins. There was no sign of Sirius in the evening sunshine, and although she could smell him his scent was far away, fading, like spilt water in the midday August heat. As much as she hated to admit it to herself, Elena missed Sirius' company. He may have been a pain in the arse, but he was a funny pain in the arse. Now that he had secluded himself she felt even more alone that she had felt stuck in that freezing, soaked cell in Azkaban, if it were possible. Night brought sleep, and sleep brought nightmares, and while Sirius slept for as long as he could to try to desperately to cling onto any moments with his friends that his dreams would bring, Elena preferred to sleep in fits, sporadically, for half hours at a time, in order to try and escape the image of her boyfriend's blood seeping out of his head and onto the floor. Exploring the rather boring street gave her something to do, and if she could catch a few rats while she was at it, then Elena would consider pacing up and down past the houses as more productive than doing what Sirius was doing, which was essentially moping.  
They had nowhere to go, no plan on the horizon, and it sucked.

* * *

The air above the road shimmered in the heat. It was August, Elena had deduced, from the sound of the morning news drifting in through the neighbour's open window, and just too hot for it to be entirely comfortable. Teenagers roamed the street in packs usually at around this time of the evening, dressed up to the nines, sweating in their leather jackets and wobbling in their kitten heels, looking almost alien on the prim and proper street with its perfectly mown lawns and polished cars, but tonight the road was empty. The sheer absence of signs of life and the only sounds being the wind rustling through the pruned hedges made Elena nervous, twitchy. There was something in the air, something crackly and potential, electric. Something was going to happen, but she didn't know what.

The loud rumble of the pot-bellied man opposite number four taking out his wheelie bins made Elena jump, and skulk under the Dursley's car in search of shade and refuge from the icy glare he was directing towards the stray. Annoyed, Elena set off in search of Sirius.

Elena finally caught up with him at the edge of the park, sniffing at some old fish and chip wrappers. She nudged him in the side once, then harder when he didn't respond. He turned begrudgingly and followed her back to their enchanted bush, which by now was getting sort of boring. When he transformed, it was with an air of tiredness that he masked with a scowl.  
"What?"  
"Something's wrong."  
"What?"  
"Can't you feel it?"  
"Feel what? Sorry I'm not all weird and prophetic as you-"  
"Sirius, shut up."  
"Make me."  
He transformed, and she grabbed him by the tail, yanking him back towards her. Spinning, he snapped at her hand, and she gasped as his teeth broke the skin, pinpricks of blood blossoming on her wrist.  
 _Jay's scream, his body flopping onto the floor, the crimson blood staining the carpet  
carpet  
blood  
Sirius_

Elena yanked her hand into her chest, breathing quickening as she smothered the wound in her t-shirt, wrapping it up so she couldn't see it anymore, so she couldn't see the red as dark as her old favourite lipstick-  
"Oh grow the hell up, it was just a nip-"  
Elena punched Sirius full in the face with her injured hand.  
" _Shit,_ woman, what the hell is wrong with you?"  
"Just…stay away from me, okay?! _Stay away_."  
Elena transformed, shaken and confused and angry and panicking, and lifted up her paw, yelping as the cut touched the pavement, then gingerly limped off out of the bush.

 **This was a lot longer update than I usually post, so I hope you like it?!  
Please leave a review letting me know what you thought!  
Fly xx**


	10. Chapter 10

Elena ran down the middle of the road, thankful for the absence of cars, ignoring the sting in her paw as she sprinted across the warm tarmac. She ran until her small feline body was near to collapse, and then limped across to a driveway on the left of her in the middle of the completely unfamiliar road. As she slunk down into the shadows between two of the houses, a single magpie, startled by her movements, gave a loud squawk and took flight. The sun was still relatively high in the sky, so there was time to kill, but her stomach was full from hunting earlier in the day and she wary of getting lost so Elena stopped for a moment to deliberate her next moves.

A woman opened the front door to the house, making Elena jump as she folded a newspaper under her arm. She went over to the rubbish bin and opened the lid, motioning to put the paper inside, but stopped as she caught sight of Elena, crouching down and smiling. She was young, early twenties, with long brown hair and energetic eyes.  
"Come here, puss. Come on!" She clicked her tongue enticingly, and Elena humoured her, slowly approaching the woman and dipping her head under the woman's outstretched hand, purring as she was stroked. Elena laid down on the pavement and let the woman pet her, not noticing that her manner had changed entirely as she scanned the front of the newspaper. Elena noticed her hand pause suddenly, mid-stroke, and looked up to see the woman intently reading the front page, looking down at Elena every few seconds in what looked like fear.  
 _Shit,_ Elena cursed mentally. _She's reading the Daily Prophet. Shit._  
Wriggling out from under the woman's hand, Elena tried to leave, but the woman grabbed her around the middle, dropping the paper, moving faster than Elena would have anticipated her to be able to. Elena hissed and clawed at the woman's hands, but the witch whipped out her wand, casting a quick look around, then immobilised Elena and picked her up.  
"Sorry kitty," The witch whispered as she carried Elena around past the garage, opened the door in the fence and took her out into the garden. "I've just got to make sure you're not something other than a cat."

With that, she opened the door to the shed, placed Elena on the floor and slammed the door shut, locking the door with the same heavy, jangling keys she'd used to open the backdoor to the garden, letting the padlock hit against the old wood. Elena waited, frozen on the floor, until she heard the back door bang shut, then swelled up all of her strength and _pushed_.  
Elena transformed, panting but thanking Merlin for her Animagus form, then stood up quickly and hit the door of the shed with both hands frantically. It shuddered but didn't move too much, so Elena's fingers scrabbled at the small part of the padlock she could see in the crack between the door, and she winced as the rust cracked and broke off, driving up into her fingernails and making them bleed. The metal looked weaker from the rust, obviously very old, and the wood was rotting. Stepping back, Elena took a deep breath then kicked the keyhole once, then twice, then for a third time, until the wood in the area splintered. Fighting her urge to barge the door with her shoulder like she'd seen in movies, she kicked it again, then did a run up and kicked it as hard as she possibly could. The completely rusted over lock broke, the wood breaking, and Elena squeezed through the crack, cursing loudly as she was scratched by the wooden splinters.

She fell, swearing, onto the grass, and transformed again. A scream from inside the house startled Elena into looking up, and the woman was standing, looking horror-struck on the other side of the glass back door, hand frozen in the movement of reaching for her wand again.  
Elena ran for it.

Sirius was nosing at some old fish and chip papers that had blown out of one of the wheelie bins when Elena came skittering to a stop next to him, and nudged him urgently. He looked up slowly, ignored her and went back to sniffing at the wrappers, so Elena bit him.  
He yelped, hackles raising as he jumped away from her, and she darted across to the bush.  
"What the _hell_ is wrong with-"  
"Sorry, sorry, but a woman found me, she had a Daily Prophet, she put me in a shed, she's contacted the Ministry, we have to go."  
Elena looked at him pleadingly, eyes full of fear, and he nodded purposefully, anger gone.  
"Okay, I've got the wand, so we can…no, no, no we can't go."  
"What?" Elena paused in collecting their empty tins from the hedge. "Why not?!"  
"Harry." Sirius said it simply, as if they weren't risking their capture by staying.  
"But Sirius!-"  
"We can't leave him with the Muggles!"  
"But we'll be captured!"  
"But he'll be in danger!"  
"Sirius, you won't be any help to him locked back up in Azkaban!"  
He shook his head angrily, almost growling under his breath. "You don't understand."  
"Maybe not! But I do know we need to _go_!"  
"Elena, we can't-"  
"Stay, then! But when you get caught and Harry gets killed by Peter Pettigrew because you wouldn't listen to a cat, don't blame me!"  
"Oh you're such a _bitch_ …" He hissed, but they both froze as the sounds of running footsteps filled the road. " _Shit-"  
_ Elena grabbed his arm, he scrabbled on the ground for the wand and they Disapparated with a quiet _pop_. They landed in the middle of a grimy, dark alleyway, and Elena relaxed, but Sirius shook his head. "No! Again!"  
When they landed beneath a willow tree in the middle of sprawling park, Elena scanned the area for people and then collapsed on the grass beside Sirius.  
"Where are we?"  
"Spinner's End." His face was dark, stormy, closed off. "Lily used to live here when she was a kid. Come on." She followed him as they snuck past the empty playground and into the mass of trees that were swaying gently in the breeze.

As they trekked through the woodland, Elena could sense Sirius' anger simmering just beneath the surface, and she knew he was going to explode as she began to speak tentatively.  
"Look, Sirius, I'm sorry-"  
"If you hadn't run off like some insane idiot-"  
"There was a reason for that!"  
"What's that then? Go on, I'm _dying_ to know!"  
"You made me bleed and I was reminded of when-"  
"Seriously?" He laughed scornfully. "Everyone's got their problems, Elena!"  
"Well you'd know all about that, wouldn't you?"  
He rounded on her, eyes fiery, like burning coal. "What's _that_ supposed to mean?"  
Elena couldn't take it anymore. "Normal people don't go around killing people's boyfriends!"  
The wind whistling through the leaves was the only sound as Sirius' face settled into grim, pale surprise. "So _that's_ what this is about. Elena-"  
"I could turn you in." She held up the wand she'd taken off of him. "Give evidence against you for the murder of Jayson Nott. I know your name now. You'd get another thirteen years. Maybe more." Elena was shaking.  
"You wouldn't do that."  
"Wouldn't I?"  
"No, you wouldn't." He said in a quiet voice. "Because you know who that man was. What that man was going to do."  
"I don't _care_!" She screamed, voice breaking. "I didn't care!"  
"You were in danger, Elena. You could have died."  
"I wish I had!"

Elena broke down in tears, sinking to her knees and bringing her arms up over her head as she cried, breathing cracking and hiccoughing. Sirius took a few deep breaths, eyes flaring and furious, then regained his composure, getting his temper back under control. He squatted next to her, and she threw her hand out, pushing him aggressively away.  
"Get away from me! You killed him! You killed him! You… _killed him_ …"  
She sobbed, and Sirius edged closer to her again. "I know. I'm sorry. I'm sorry."  
"Sorry isn't enough!" She shrieked, hitting at him, and he braced himself, letting her.  
"He was putting you in danger. You would have died. He might have killed you."  
"I KNOW!" She screamed. "I know!"  
"I'm sorry Elena. I'm sorry."  
"You killed him. You _killed him._ You killed him!" Her breathing was speeding up. "You…he's dead…he's _dead_ …and I went to Azkaban bec-because of you!"  
Sirius winced, closing his eyes. "God I know…I'm sorry…"  
Elena took a deep breath, wiping her eyes and nose, eyes angry.  
"I should k-kill…kill you."  
His eyes flickered with panic, but his posture and voice was calm.  
"Probably. You probably should. You can, if you want. I've got nothing to live for, apart from my godson, and I can't help him anymore. I don't have anything apart from him to live for. Kill me if you want. Kill me if it will make you feel better. Kill me if you will stop you from hurting."  
Elena hiccoughed. "No…you can't let me…you're supposed to hurt…I wanted you to _hurt…_ he was going to…you killed him…you killed him…he's dead… _dead_ …his blood was everywhere…it even got in my hair…all over the floor…all over the floor…you killed him…you killed him…"  
"I know-"  
"NO! You don't!"  
"No, I don't." Sirius spoke gently, carefully, as one would talk soothingly to a wild animal to stop it biting. "Just breathe-"  
"I'll breathe if I want to! Not because you told me so!"  
"Elena," Sirius sensed her rising hysteria, just how Remus used to get when he was too stressed. "Stop. Just stop for a minute."  
"Stop what? Being mad? Oh I'm sorry, you only _murdered my boyfriend_!"  
"Elena." He held her shoulders as her eyes darted around, hyperventilating, and she froze, yanking herself out of his hold. "Elena, you need to calm down."  
"I don't _need_ to do anything!" She said shrilly, and he put his hands on his shoulders, holding her still. "Yes, you do. Stop, Elena. Stop this. Calm down."  
"I…I…I…you killed him! You killed him! You-"  
Sirius went to take the wand out of her frenzied, flailing hands, and she snatched it out his reach.  
"Oh! Oh! That's what you want! The wand! Well-"  
She was cut off as Sirius tackled her, grabbed the wand and Stunned her, then sat back on his haunches, breathing heavily.

A magpie perched in a tree overhead let out a loud, raspy squawk, and it sounded like a scream.

 **Elena and Sirius' confrontation! What did you think? I hope you liked it!  
Don't forget to follow and favourite if you liked it, and review with what you thought!  
Fly xx**


	11. Chapter 11

"Okay. Okay. _Renervate_."  
Elena stirred, eyelids fluttering, and shifted as she came to, and Sirius knelt beside her, wand in his hand, face wary. "Elena?"  
"Mhm?" She stretched as she sat up, completely relaxed, eyes bleary but content, and then froze, face dropping and clouding over with remembrance. "I…oh…oh…no! You…did you _Stun_ me?"  
"Sort of, yeah."  
"Why did you do that?" Her voice rose in tone sharply, and Sirius adjusted his grip on the wand.  
"You weren't…you weren't right to talk. And I wanted to talk, properly."  
Elena stared at him, accusingly, then nodded slowly. "Okay. Let's talk. Did you feel bad when you killed my boyfriend in cold blood, Sirius?"  
"Elena-"  
"Did you?"  
"He was a Death Eater, Elena, he was going to kill hundreds of people-"  
"So you killed him, and framed me for it."  
"To save hundreds- I didn't think you'd be framed...and I didn't know you then, I didn't think-"  
"So you let an innocent woman go to Azkaban, a woman you didn't even know-"  
"It wasn't like that. I didn't really think. I wasn't told anything about what happened after. I was given a mission and I completed it."  
"So it was just a mission to you."  
"Elena, please just listen."  
She waited. "Listen to what? There's nothing you can say to make this better. You killed the man I loved. You left me to be chucked in Azkaban for life without a second thought."  
"I didn't know-"  
"I don't care."  
"I don't care that you didn't know. You didn't have to know anything about me or my boyfriend or what was going to happen, killing is wrong. You should've known that."  
"I've paid for it."  
"Have you?"  
"13 years in Azkaban? Yes. I have paid for it."  
"And I paid for it too. 12 years. 12 years of hell. That I didn't deserve."  
"I'm sorry-"  
"It doesn't matter if you're sorry or not. It doesn't change anything."

"I know it doesn't. I know it doesn't. I know. I'm sorry. I wanted to do the right thing, but I obviously bloody didn't, did I? I obviously can't do a bloody thing can I? He was a fricking Death Eater Elena! He was evil!"  
"You're a Black, right? So was your family evil?"  
"Yes!"  
"No wonder you're such a dick." Elena muttered, and Sirius sighed, but she wasn't finished, looking him straight in the eyes. "He wouldn't have killed me."  
"He was going to!"  
"And how would _you_ know _that_?"  
"The Order, they had inside knowledge, he was planning a mass killing spree. You knew who he was, what he'd done, he wouldn't have just let you go-"  
"You didn't know him."  
"Yeah, and I'm glad."  
"Why are you glad?"  
"Because then I would have been able to kick his fricking teeth in, and I don't think you'd have liked that."  
"Whatever happened to respect the dead!"  
"The dead started to disrespect us."  
"Oh don't you get all poetic on me you prick!"  
"Elena-"  
"No." She took a few steps backwards. "No. We need to stop this. We need to stop. We need to go."  
"Go?"  
"Go back to Harry. We need to make sure, to make sure that he's safe. We have to go."  
"Um, okay-"  
"Where's the wand?" Elena started towards Sirius and he held it to his chest.  
"I've got it."  
"We need to Apparate." She looked around, panicked, at the darkening sky. "We need to go!"  
"Okay! Okay. Let's go then?"  
Sirius was beyond confused, but went along with her frantic demands.  
"Elena, are you okay-"  
"Sirius!" Her voice was sharp, deadly serious. "We need to go!"  
"Okay-"  
Sirius was cut off as Elena stepped quickly next to him, grabbing his wrist and clutching it tightly, painfully. "Go!"  
He Disapparated, and he could Elena shouting as the familiar Apparating sensation overtook their senses, and then they appeared in the middle of a lake. They didn't have time to orientate themselves before they crashed into the murky water.

Elena nearly sucked in a breath at the shock of the freezing temperature of the water, then spat it out, lungs burning as dirty water flooded into her mouth and up her nose. Her eyes flew open, searing with pain, and she kicked out frantically, not sure which way she was up. Something grabbed onto her wrist and she hit out, her cry of alarm spewing out in a whole load of bubbles, then flailed her arms, pushing herself as quickly as she could towards what she thought was the surface, chest burning, mind blind with panic. When she broke the water she shoved her mouth greedily up to gulp down the air, breathing raspy, as she splashed desperately, trying to keep herself afloat.  
"Stop, relax!" Sirius shouted after he emerged, treading water jerkily. "The shore's over there."  
"I…can't…s-swim!" Elena shouted back, teeth chattering.  
"Just kick your legs?"  
"Wow thanks!" Elena yelled sarcastically. "I totally _wasn't_ doing that already!"  
"Stop being a smart-arse and focus on not drowning!"  
"Who…died and made you…in charge?" Elena tried to sound calm, but she was thrashing under the water, heart racing.  
"Just swim Elena!"  
She went under, coughing out the dirty water in her mouth.  
"I told you, I…can't!"  
Elena went under again, and Sirius hauled her back up again. "Just try and…copy me-"  
She tried to mimic his smooth movements, following him towards the grassy bed, spitting out water, until she could just tickle the lakebed with her toes, then she waded through the long grass and the mud, wincing as she stepped on stones and suspicious objects, the cold water chilling her to her bones, skin covered in soil and soaking wet.

Sirius had sat heavily down on the bank, pushing his long hair out of his face, by the time Elena staggered through the grass towards him, annoyed. The cold water seemed to have shocked her out of her glazed-over, slightly scary state she'd been in before, and Sirius was relieved, studying her face carefully as she exploded angrily. "What the _hell_ was that?"  
"What?"  
"You Apparated us to the middle of the lake! And you _know_ I can't swim!"  
"Oh yeah, sorry about that…" Sirius wasn't really listening, just watching her movements and manner closely as she slumped down on the ground next to him, breathing deeply, a bit light-hearted. "Are you okay?"  
"Okay? I think I just swallowed half the lake!"  
"Yeah, but are you sure you're okay? You were a bit…"  
"A bit what? Jesus, Sirius, what are going on about?"  
"Do you not know…-"  
"Do you want to go back to what we were discussing previously, or should we move on to the more pressing issues at hand?" Elena's eyes were piercing.  
"No, um, let's, just…"  
"Where are we?"  
"Somewhere near Hogsmeade. I remembered seeing that lake out the window on the Hogwarts Express."  
"Couldn't you have landed us on the dry land or something?" Elena was wracked with shivers, teeth chattering violently, and Sirius was the same.  
"I wasn't thinking properly, you just said we needed to move, so sorry about that."  
"We'll get hypothermia if we don't dry off. Where's the wand?"  
"It's here." Sirius placed it on the ground between them. Elena snatched it up, hand trembling as she shuddered in the cold air, and Sirius instinctively lunged for it. She jerked it out of his reach, looking confused and hurt, and he looked slightly ashamed but didn't explain himself as she waved the wand over herself, shivering and sighing with relief as warmth settled over her body. She then passed it to Sirius so he could do the same, standing up and shaking out her cold-deadened limbs.

"Okay, so what are we going to do now?"  
"See how close we can get to Hogwarts."  
"But term doesn't start for a while, does it?"  
"I suppose…Diagon Alley, then? We'll be able to get any news that way. Then, we'll come back here, and see if we can get into the grounds."  
"So we could have bypassed the swim, then." Elena grumbled, and Sirius shoved her in the shoulder, so she veered off course, then punched him hard on the arm, so he yelped.  
"Oi!"  
"Don't push me then!" Elena sighed exasperatedly. "Honestly, sometimes you don't even have to open your mouth to make my head hurt."  
"Any shorter and you'd probably just fade out of existence."  
"Ironically, I don't blame them for not giving you a trial. You give off this lovely vibe, like you want to murder everyone you look at. That, or they all want to murder you. Or maybe that's just me."  
"I'd be scared if you could reach me to hit me."  
"I can't believe you still here, Sirius. I thought you'd be at the theatre group."  
He laughed disbelieving. "You what?"  
"You know, auditioning for A Midsummer Night's Dream. I heard they're looking for an ass."  
"Where were you born, on the motorway? Because that's where most of the accidents happen."  
"Where were you born, Battersea Dogs Home? Because you're a son of a bitch."  
"Did you hear that? It's the sound of no one caring."  
"It's funny, I couldn't hear that over the sound of your false sense of self-importance."  
"I could eat a bowl of alphabet soup and shit better arguments than you."  
"That'd make a nice change from all the shit that's coming out of your mouth, Sirius."  
"If you were any more of a bitch, you'd have puppies."  
"Then you wouldn't be the only son of a bitch in the room."  
He laughed. "Nice. Unlike your face."  
"Jeez, that was a _new level_ of pathetic. If I throw a stick, will you leave?" Elena picked up a chunk of wood from the ground and threw it. "Fetch!"  
Sirius laughed and transformed, bounding forward to get it, then jumped up at her, bowling her over, barking. "Real mature." She scoffed, as he started licking every inch of her he could reach. "Oh, yuck! Sirius…stop it! Ew!"  
His bark sounded like a laugh, and she swatted at him, giggling furiously as she was tickled, trying desperately to quell her laughter. "Oh, for fu- Sirius, _stop it_ -"  
"Hello? Who are you, and what are you doing on my land?"  
As Elena sat up slowly, only one thought crossed her mind as she faced the befuddled looking old man standing in front of them.  
 _Shit._

 **I hope you liked it!  
Seena: I worried that that might not be clear, but Sirius told her about in one of the earlier chapters? Thank you for the feedback x  
JamesTKent: They will resolve it, but they're both putting it off :) neither of them are the emotional talk-y types, in my opinion, but never fear, this WILL be resolved. Thank you for your feedback!  
Let me know what you thought in a review!  
Fly xx**


	12. Chapter 12

"Hello? Who are you, and what are you doing on my land?"  
 _Shit.  
_ "I'm Ele-Ellie Broadshaw, sir. I'm ever so sorry, him and I, I mean, my dog and I, I was walking him, and I must have wandered onto your land by accident, I'm sorry."  
"But…the electric fence…" He didn't look angry, just baffled.  
"Oh, of course, yeah, sorry I didn't know what you meant, I threw the ball over the fence, so I climbed a tree and got over to get it, I'm sorry, I didn't realise I was trespassing-"  
"It's alright." The middle-aged Muggle didn't smile, but he looked slightly appeased. "But leave, now, please."  
"Yes, of course. Sorry sir, but would you be able to tell me the quickest way to leave? It's just I'm not sure how to get back, and I wouldn't want to intrude on your property any longer…"  
"Oh alright," He said gruffly. "This way."  
He led Elena and Sirius as his Animagus, who was padding quietly along behind at her heels, up to a side gate in the electric fence that Elena hadn't noticed before, dug around in his pocket for the key, then unlocked the gate, which swung open stiffly.  
"There you go."  
"Thank you so much, sir. I'm sorry again."  
"Don't come onto my land again." He said in the manner of declaring well wishes.  
"Of course not. Thank you."

Elena and Sirius walked out the gate and down a hill towards the road, and it was ten minutes before they came to a crop of trees that in the depth of it one wouldn't be visible, so Sirius led Elena into there, then transformed.  
"Nice save there Munroe."  
"Good thing I'm such a quick thinker, eh Black?"  
"A very good thing indeed."  
"Right, so we're going to Diagon Alley then?"  
"Yeah, if you want. I mean, could we just check on Harry first? Like make sure that he's-"  
"Sure."  
They linked arms, the two fugitives, and Disapparated.

Privet Drive was dusky, the sky a wonderful deep purple, like dreams and wine. They had just transformed and were approaching the Dursley's house when a loud commotion from inside it made them stop in their tracks. Sirius scurried into the bushes as Harry Potter burst out of the front door, dragging his trunk behind him with a furious air of defiance, the underside of his luggage scraping the pavement with a painful screeching noise.  
Elena approached him hesitantly, meowing, and he rushed past her without a second glance, so she had to hurry to keep up with him, dodging the trunk which was skittering side to side as he stormed down the road. He turned onto another quaint little street by the name of _Magnolia Crescent_ and sat with a huff down on the kerb. Elena padded up to him, and ducked her head underneath his hand, arching her back, wanting to be stroked. He began to pet her almost absent-mindedly, and his owl hissed at her from inside its cage, but Harry ignored it, glaring steadfastly at the pavement with a dogged determination and persistence in his anger.

Elena meowed again, and he muttered something under his breath, and looked up as there was a rustling in the bushes across the street. Harry tensed visibly, and Elena followed his gaze to the bush where Sirius was watching them, dark eyes shining in the gloom. She was faintly relieved to see him there, but Harry obviously wasn't, standing up quickly and reaching for his wand in his pocket, looking alarmed. Harry stuck his arm out, wand pointing at Sirius, who retreated hastily. Suddenly, there was a loud _bang_ and the Knight Bus sped up the road, crashing to a stop in front of Harry, who fell backwards onto the kerb with a shout. Elena darted away from the purple bus into the magically shielded bush, and Elena transformed, keeping her voice a low whisper.  
"We need to go! They're wizards!"  
"But we won't know where he goes-"  
"Sshhh! Listen!" Elena strained to hear the conversation, then slumped, annoyed, but Sirius was still, apparently listening intently. He then relaxed and held out his hand. "Diagon Alley."  
"What?"  
"The Leaky Cauldron. Here-"  
Sirius grabbed her wrist and they Disapparated.

* * *

each door until she could hear someone pacing, muttering under his breath. Her hearing wasn't as sharp as Sirius', but she could hear the voice because it was familiar. She meowed as loudly as she could and scratched at the door viciously, but he apparently didn't hear him because he didn't respond. She was about to give up but skulk away, when a frizzy-haired woman came down the corridor pushing a trolley filled with magical cleaning products, a broom levitating behind her.  
Elena padded up to her with a loud meow, then scratched at Harry's door.  
"You can't get back in to your owner?" The woman stopped and went up to the door. "Don't worry, kitty, here…" She knocked on the door, and there was a second before Harry opened it, looking irritated.

"Sorry, I don't want housekeeping-"  
"I know, I know, it's just your cat. He was scratching to get in."  
"Cat? I don't have a…" Harry looked surprised as he peered down at Elena, then at once nodded and shook his head. "Sorry, yes, thank you."  
"He is yours, right?"  
"Yes, yes. Thank you."  
Elena ran in and leapt up onto the bed, and Harry sighed tiredly, sitting next to her and starting to stroke her. "Hello again. Did you follow me?"  
She meowed, and he smiled wearily. "So I blew up my aunt-"  
Elena made a sound like a cat with a hairball, and he laughed. "She insulted my parents, and I sort of exploded…well, she was the one who exploded. Not literally. I didn't kill her. She just sort of inflated. Like a balloon. The Dursleys kicked me out…I ran away, actually, but they would have kicked me out if I didn't. Then I got on the Knight Bus, and it brought me here, and _then_ I spoke to the _Minister for Magic_ , and I thought that I was going to be arrested or something, but I wasn't. He just seemed pleased that I wasn't dead, or something. Apparently there's some madman out to kill me."  
Elena made the amused, coughing noise again, and Harry mock-glared at her.  
"So it's funny that there's a lunatic trying to kill me. Thanks."  
She licked his knee in the way of an apology and he seemed to mellow.  
"So yeah. I'm not scared."  
 _You don't need to be_ , Elena would have said, but doing so would ironically have probably made quite scared indeed.

I hope you liked it- follow and favourite if you did!  
 **Let me know what you thought in a review!**  
Fly xx


	13. Chapter 13

Sirius was stropping, and Elena had no patience for it. They'd hiked out into Muggle London, found a spacious alley filled with rubbish bins and luckily a dirty, thrown out mattress and she had erected some basic wards around the area, so no one would see them, hear them or discover them, hopefully.  
"Why does she get to go see him…he's my godson…" Sirius muttered, kicking an empty crisps packet around angrily.  
"Because you're scary, and he trusts me already." Elena snapped, combing through her hair with her fingers.  
"I wasn't talking to you." He said nastily. "I was talking to myself."  
"And you said Azkaban didn't send you mad." She shot back, and he rounded on her.  
"You know, it's none of your business, so just shut it."  
"It is too my business if you're just going to stand there kicking rubbish around instead of doing something productive."  
"What do you want me to do? Go check on Harry. Oh wait, I _can't do that_!"  
"Oh stop moaning! I'll go check on him in a minute."  
"Why shouldn't I moan?" He glared at her. "I'm starving. And bored."  
"Well I'm sorry I don't come with a portable kitchen." She hissed, standing up. "And go chase a cat or something."  
"Bitch." He muttered.  
"Dickhead."  
"Shorty."  
"Convicted mass murderer."  
"Shut up." He sat heavily down on the filthy mattress, face stormy and frustrated.

"Who's Remus, by the way?"  
"What?" He said savagely. "How d'you know about him?"  
"You were talking about him in your sleep last night."  
"Why were you listening to me when I sleep? Stalker."  
"I couldn't exactly not hear you, you were practically shouting. Kept me awake, you did."  
"Don't expect me to apologise."  
"I don't." She eyed him shrewdly. "So who is he?"  
"Remus? Guy I used to date."  
She raised her eyebrows."  
"If you've got a problem with that-"  
"The lunatic in the next cell to me snogged his shit bucket I don't care who you play tonsil tennis with mate."  
"All right then. Good."  
"Was he hot then?" She added cheekily, mouth twisted in a smirk  
"Piss off Elena."

"See you later, killer." Elena saluted, transformed and darted off out of the shadows.

It took her nearly an hour to get back to the Leaky Cauldron, so she was panting and out of breath as she trudged tiredly up the stairs, avoiding the other lodgers' feet as they moved around the inn.  
When she reached Harry's door, she scratched and meowed as loud as she could, and this time he opened the door and let her in almost immediately, with a bright "Hello!"  
Elena followed him into the room, waited for him to shut the door and jumped up onto the desk in front of the mirror. Facing up at the ceiling was a new, unblemished copy of the Daily Prophet with two headshots glaring at her. Sirius' face was gaunt and angry, shaking the chains that held him in place. Elena looked hollow, numb and stunned, like she couldn't believe what was going on, and in her mugshot her hair wasn't matted or knotted, but sleek and shiny, pulled back in braids. In the picture she was curvy and soft, but then Azkaban sucked away her gentleness and made her bony and brittle. Not fragile like a flower, but fragile like a bomb.  
She tore her gaze away from the mugshots on the front page and purred as Harry began to stroke her. Harry opened his mouth to say something, but was interrupted before he could say anything but a loud knock at the door.  
He looked confused, but stood up and went over to the door, opened it.

A six-foot, physically imposing man, almost as wide as he was tall with muscle, with long brown hair and a silly, simple-looking face and bulbous watery blue eyes stood in the doorway, a short wand in his hand. Waving it, he summoned Harry's wand from the desk and scowled intimidatingly. Harry took a step back, eyes widening in fear. "What…what do you want?"  
The man didn't speak, just took another step forward and shut the door behind him.  
Elena leapt down from the desk and stood in front of Harry, hissing at the intruder. Terror sparked up and down her body as her body went into fight or flight mode. As the man lifted his wand, he revealed his exposed arm, and starkly black against his pasty skin was the Dark Mark.  
That was all the confirmation Elena needed, and she made a split second decision.

Elena transformed, swung her arm back and punched him in the nose with her whole body weight, straight on the nose. He stumbled, and she kicked him in the back of the knees so he fell, then stomped on his face. The man slumped, blood trickling from his nose, unconscious.  
" _Ow_!" Elena yelped, supporting her hand, which felt like it was broken, on fire, then remembered the boy and span around. "All right, Scarhead?"  
Harry looked like he was about to faint.  
"Did you see that?" She said excitedly. "His bicep is the size of my head! Aren't you impressed? You should be impressed! Why aren't you impressed? Ha! Enjoy having a broken nose you 300 pound bastard!"

Elena looked at him, almost disappointed. "For the boy who vanquished ol' Voldy you're not very impressive, are you. Geez, leave it to the lady to go all the work. Now come on you twat, there might be more of them."

Harry looked like he was about to fall over, which Elena would have paid money to see.

"You…you…your picture was in the daily prophet…you're…you're the fugitive who killed her boyfriend…Munroe…Elena Munroe."  
He was starting to panic.  
"That's me!" She smiled brightly, but inside she was worried. "Also, really? 'Fugitive'? I think more of myself as an overcompensating drama queen. Now pop your little baby booties on and lets go."  
"But you're dead…it said in the daily prophet…you…you drowned off the island Azkaban…they found your body!"  
"lol since when?"  
Harry frowned, looking puzzled and scared.  
"Oh yes sorry I forgot I am a ghoooost…" Elena said sarcastically.  
"What? Really?"  
"No. Geez, you're not exactly the pointiest hat in the witch hat shop are you?"  
"But…the daily prophet…"

"The daily prophet is a load of shit. Probably didn't to cause widespread panic by saying that there are two murderers on the loose. Not," She said thoughtfully, "that I am a murderer. Ready to go?"  
"I'm not going anywhere with you! You're a murderer!"  
"Friends don't call each other murderers, my little Niffler."  
"You might try to kill me." He said warily, edging towards the man's unconscious body and picking up his wand.  
"Talk about gratitude! I nearly broke your hand saving you, why would I kill you? Besides I only lost all my baby teeth at age 15 I'm not killing anyone."  
"What do baby teeth have to do with this?" Harry was baffled.  
"About the same amount of relevance as pumpkin juice."  
"Pumpkin juice?"  
"Yes, pumpkin juice, I need some. Go get me some, will you, munchkin?"  
"But I thought you said we have to go…" Harry still looked stunned.  
"Oh _now_ you want to go."  
"Why…why do you want pumpkin juice…?"  
"Do you think they serve gourmet meals in Azkaban? I nearly broke my hand, it will make me feel better." Elena sat down on the bed and folded her legs. Harry made a weird spasm motion and pointed the wand directly at her. "You're holding the man's wand."  
"Yeah, I am. Here," Elena took the wand she picked up and put it on the floor, raising her hands in the air. "Calm down Scarhead. I'm not going to hurt you. Honest. I'm not a murderer. I swear."  
"I don't trust you."  
"Fair enough." She nodded enthusiastically. "You don't have to. But right now there is most likely going to be someone who comes to check where this tool has got to, and staying here is not sounding like the most sensible option." She stood up. "Besides, there would be lots of people who I'm sure would be rather upset if you popped your clogs, and we don't want to upset any of them, now do we?"  
"Um…no…?"  
"You can hold the wands," Elena said placatingly. "I'll transform, and I'll escort you down to the bar to make sure that no one attacks you on the stairs, then you can explain to the innkeeper what happened and he should get you another, more protected room and inform the godforsaken Ministry, because interfering busybodies are what you really need right now."  
"Okay…"  
"Grab your man bag and tampons and we'll go downstairs."

When Harry had slowly readied his rucksack and was ready to go, still baffled, Elena led him down the stairs in her Animagus form, slim white tail jauntily high.

 **This chapter had a bit of a unsuspecting twist...** **I hope you liked it- follow and favourite if you did!**  
 **More reviews= faster updates (because I get super pumped and want to write whenever I get that notification)**  
 **Fly xx**


	14. Chapter 14

"You did _what_?"  
Sirius sounded past anger.

"Revealed myself to Harry. Are you deaf or something? I've literally said it like, three times."  
"Are you _mad_?" He snarled. "He'll tell the Ministry! They'll find us! We'll be sent back to bloody _Azkaban_! You _idiot_!"  
"While you're busy shouting at me, I thought you'd like to know that I did it to _save his life_!"  
Sirius' face instantly stilled, like ripples stopping after a stone sinks all the way to the bottom of the pond. "What? Someone tried to kill him? Is he all right?"  
"Yeah, he's fine, of course he's fine, he was with me. I knocked the bastard out, calmed him down as much as I could, then took him down to the bar to tell the innkeeper. He's in the VIP room downstairs in the Leaky Cauldron now, with an Auror guard 24/7. I'm not stupid, thank you very much." Elena countered with a stroppy expression, arms crossed.  
"Well how did he react? Was he okay? Did he look okay? I mean, you know what I mean, it's just, like, what did he say?"  
"Well…"

* * *

An hour later Elena managed to get past the Auror guarding the door to Harry's room by sneaking under his chair and slipping through the gap in the door that the Auror had been using to check on Harry every hour, like a creep, but a paid one. She shut the door quietly, snatched up Harry's wand from the bedside table, locked the door with a _click_ and went into the bathroom.

Elena then turned on the shower, as high as the pressure would go, spraying herself with water as she did so, and skipped back into the bedroom, approaching his bed and saying cheerily:

"Morning Scarhead!"  
The sound of the shower starting had startled him; Harry had sat up in bed and swore loudly.  
"Language, snowflake. You're what, twelve?"  
"Thirteen actually." He muttered.  
"Oh, so _old_ and _full of wisdom_. What are you learning at Hogwarts, _Wingardium Leviosa_?"  
Harry scowled. "I know you're an Animagus."  
"I took you that long to figure it out. Geez, you're not exactly lightning fast, are you? See what I did there? _Lightning_ fast?" She did finger-guns at him and smiled encouragingly. "Because you've got a lightning bolt…oh forget it."  
Harry goggled at her. "How… _old_ are you?"  
Elena decided not to take that as an insult. She'd changed a lot.  
"Here's a tip for you, dove. Dating advice, free of charge. Unless you have a galleon, because I wasn't joking about that pumpkin juice. What was I saying? Oh! Yeah! Never ask a lady her age. Unless you want to know whether she's legal, in which case, definitely ask. Azkaban sucks, trust me."  
He spluttered. "You're…I mean…"  
"Got a girlfriend? Cute girlfriend?"  
"No, I mean-"He coughed, flushing red. "I don't-"  
"What's her name?"  
"I don't have a-"  
"Of course you don't." She whispered with an exaggerated wink to suggest secrecy. "So are we going or what?"  
"What? What are you talking about? The Auror told me I shouldn't go anywhere…"  
"Which is exactly _why_ you go somewhere! Come on, Scarhead, that's bad boy trick number one!"  
"You're mad…" He mumbled as if it were a new revelation, with expression of complete and utter amazement at the realization.  
"Probably!" She agreed. "Now, are we going or not?"  
"We have to stay in Diagon alley."  
"All right _mum._ " She grinned. _  
_"I could still tell of you, you know." He nodded. "Yeah. Yeah. I could!"  
"Ooh I'm quaking in my boots. If you were going to tell of me then you would have done so yesterday. Besides, I saved your life. You owe me. And we're friends, and friends don't report each other to the ministry. So where do you want to go?"  
"You escaped with Sirius black! He killed my parents!"  
"He killed my boyfriend." Elena said brightly, but her eyes were hollow.  
He narrowed his eyes. "I don't believe you."  
"Of course you don't. Why would you? But I'm don't want you dead, Scarhead. You're kind of adorable, in a confused mole kind of way."  
"What? Did you just…call me a mole?"  
"An _adorable_ mole. Keep up!"  
There was a knock on the door. Elena transformed with a hiss and darted behind the bed.  
" _Oh thanks you're so helpful,_ " he whispered venomously, and clutching his wand, opened the door  
the Auror the Ministry was behind it, face stony.  
"I heard a noise. Are you alone?"  
"Yes. I was just…talking to my owl?"  
The Auror frowned with the air of _is…is he okay?_  
"I'm going to go down to Diagon Alley and do my homework, if that's _okay_ with you?"  
"Fine. But you have to stay in my sight at all times. It's for your safety."  
 _This_ was with the air of a man that didn't really give a crap about anyone's safety and just sort of wanted to go home and be with his wife and kids.  
The Auror shut the door. Harry dragged himself out of bed and trudged into the bathroom, then slammed the door so hard the walls shuddered. Elena transformed and curled up on top of his pillow, snoozing until he stormed back out again, his clothes too baggy and big, hair a spiky mess.

She transformed and jumped off the bed, clapping her hands excitedly like a child.  
"Can we go now? Canwegocanwegocanwegocanwego?"  
"It's _early_ -"  
"Canwegocanwegocanwegocanwegocanwego?"  
But I don't want to-"  
"Canwegocanwegocanwegocanwego-"  
"Yes! _Fine."_ He whispered venomously. " _Fine._ "  
Grinning, she whispered, "Carry me past him, walk really fast, then put me down when you get downstairs, and he won't look twice."  
She transformed, and looked up at Harry expectantly. He awkwardly held out his arms and she jumped up and clung to his t-shirt sleeves, claws obviously digging in him, because he winced.  
He practically ran down the stairs and the Auror jerked up out of his seat and followed, as Harry rushed down the stairs into the bar, where a few of the other guests were sitting around having breakfast. Harry immediately ent straight for the bar to order breakfast, and Elena made an exasperated noise like she had a hairball

Elena pushed at his legs towards until he changed direction and stumbled towards the boy's bathroom and Harry stumbled in. She wasted no time in hissing, snarling and swiping until the terrified man standing by the urinal yanked his pants up and ran out of the bathroom, dodging her clawing attacks. She then swiftly transformed, and pointed at the door, whispering furiously. " _Lock it_!"  
"But I don't know how to-"  
"Oh, _give it here_ -"  
She said impatiently, snatching his wand and waving it at the door. It shut, tight, and clicked.  
"Now," She smiled cheerily, sitting abruptly on the floor, cross-legged, like a child. "How are we going to escape Mr Sunshine outside?"  
"I don't know." Harry huffed. "Why do you care? You're a fugitive. You're lucky I haven't reported you. Leave me alone. Go away."  
"Well that's not very nice." She said, unwavering. "You'd think you'd be a little bit nicer to the girl who saved your life."  
"I didn't need your help."  
"Alright, and your scar is actually the remains of a cut off unicorn horn. What's it like, being a unicorn, by the way?"  
Harry looked baffled. "What…what are you even talking about?"  
"You could have a cat, right?"  
"What?"  
"You have an owl, grouchy little shit, she is, but you could also have a cat. Especially if you kept it a secret."  
"What…have a cat? Why…?" He realised where she was going with her question, and tensed involuntarily. "Why would I let you come to Hogwarts with me? You could start killing people, you could do _anything_."  
"That's not a very nice thing to think. You should know me better than that. Of course that's not why I want to go to Hogwarts."  
"You don't know you at all. Why would _you_ want to come to Hogwarts, other than to hurt people? You're a _murderer_!"  
"I'm going to pretend you didn't say that, cupcake."  
She waggled her finger patronisingly. "And for the pumpkin juice, of course! It's like I told you." Elena winked. "I'm obsessed."  
"But…but…" Harry spluttered, then folded his arms. "No."  
"Grumpy." She retorted. "Why not?"  
"Because."  
"Because why?"  
"Just because."  
"Why just because?"  
" _Because._ " He said impatiently.  
"Well that's not a very good reason, is it?"  
There's was an aggravated knock on the door, and the Auror's gruff voice sounded annoyed. "Mister Potter? Is everything fine in there?"  
"Just peachy." Elena muttered. "Don't worry, he's just taking a particularly difficult shit."  
Harry glared at her before replying, irritated. "Yes, I'm fine. No one's trying to kill me."  
He then added darkly. " _Yet._ "  
"I'm really not appreciating this constant battle, pumpkin."  
"I have to _go_!"  
Elena transformed with a quiet _meow_ and jerked her small feline head towards his open arms. He frowned at her, moving his arms out to look at his chest like there was something there, and she leapt gracefully up in between his arms. He staggered with a quiet ' _ah'_ of alarm, not knowing how to hold her, and Elena wriggled until she was comfortable and then pulled the hem of the jacket round with her teeth to cover her.  
Harry scowled down at her, snarling, " _Really?"  
_ Elena meowed contently, and he sighed vehemently. "Oh _fine_. But don't move."  
She made a little, indignant, affronted noise, which a disgruntled Harry took to mean that she wasn't stupid. _  
_She was a tiny cat, skin and bone, and Harry didn't need to check in the grimy mirror over the chipped sinks whether she could be seen curled around his left arm under his jacket, but he checked anyway, then waved his wand with some difficulty and muttered, " _Alohomora."_

Followed by the Auror, Harry walked outside into the bustling Diagon Alley, rucksack with his work in over one shoulder and a small cat tucked under his jacket. She kept clawing at his jacket to keep herself stable, and Harry kept hissing at her to " _Stop it!"_ which further reinforced the Auror's belief that the Boy-Who-Lived perhaps needed to see a doctor.

Harry laboriously made his way over to Florean's ice cream parlour and dropped his bag down on one of the empty tables out in the sun. The Auror frowned at him and then went to examine a stand of dancing golden cauldrons a bit further down the road. The ice cream shop had just opened, and so was empty, except for the wizened Mr Fortescue hurrying around lifting up shutters and throwing open windows and waving his wand to ignite the lanterns in the corners of the room. Unnecessarily, Harry noticed, as it was bright, warm day, but he didn't say anything; in fact, he almost didn't go in, seeing as Mr Fortescue was still in a bathrobe, hair all over the place, but the sign on the door was flipped to ' _Open'_ and Harry wanted ice cream for breakfast. It was one of the only times he'd had to by and large do what he liked, and a sundae with extra sauce and nuts was calling his name.

Elena slipped out from under his jacket and slinked to curl up in the shadows under the old metal table as Harry wandered into the shop, asking a little tentatively:  
"Mr Fortescue? I'm sorry, err…are you open?"  
"What does the sign say?" Florean proclaimed loudly, flipping up the lid to show the large cauldrons of different flavours of ice cream.  
"Urm…open?"  
"So then I am open!" He declared, waving his hands with a theatrical flourish.  
"Err…great. I just thought…"  
"You just thought what, son?" Florean looked up, eyes wide and slightly crazed, glazed over with sleep, hair sticking up at all angles.  
"It's just…you're still in your pyjamas, but if you're open, then-"  
"Oh, yes, yes, of course!" He waved his wand and his bathrobe magically changed into his usual uniform. "Bloody rooster." He muttered as an afterthought and Harry didn't enquire as to what he meant.

Harry ordered a sundae and, after a moment's deliberation (I mean, what if drinking pumpkin juice would make her into some giant mutant cat that would go around killing people, and that was why she wanted it so badly?) and then also ordered a goblet of pumpkin juice, but "can I have it in a bowl?"  
"A bowl? Are you going to be practising be a dog, son?"  
"No, sir, it's for my cat."  
Florean suddenly looked disorientated. "You have a cat?"  
"Um…yes."  
"What's it called?"  
"Err…Fluffy."  
An indignant sneeze from outside told Harry that Elena did not approve of the name.  
Florean's expression displayed that his thought process was going down the same way as the Auror's. "…Lovely."  
Harry fished in his money bag for some Galleons and tried to put them on the counter, but Florean pushed them back off into Harry's hands. "Nope! I told you! You killed He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named! If he had kept wiping out people I wouldn't have half as many customers now would I?"  
He winked at Harry, who smiled back a little uneasily, took his sundae and the dish of pumpkin juice, and went back outside, then popped the bowl on the floor and sat down to eat his ice cream before starting his holiday homework. Elena licked his leg once and Harry took that as a sign of appreciation, and smiled a little reluctantly as he shovelled extra sauce and nuts into his waiting mouth.

This chapter was a bit longer than usual- I hope you liked it!  
More reviews= faster updates! Thanks!  
Fly xx


	15. Chapter 15

The Auror scowled mistrustfully as the bushy-haired girl nearly smothered Harry Potter with a hug, then started to wonder if it counted as an assassination attempt and began contemplating whether he had enough grounds to arrest her simply to stop her endless stream of excessively fast, almost not understandable chatter, which was, quite frankly, irritating him.

After Ron had finished laughing about Harry nearly blowing up Aunt Marge and they'd altogether caught up, Hermione pulled out her purse.  
"I've still got ten Galleons," She smiled at them. "It's my birthday in September, and Mum and Dad gave me some money to get myself an early birthday present."  
"How about a nice book?" Ron said, face carefully composed, and Harry grinned as he looked around them for Elena. She'd vanished when he'd approached his friends.  
"No, I don't think so," Hermione said indignantly. "I really want an owl. I mean, Harry's got Hedwig, and Ron you've got Errol-"  
"I haven't!" Ron retorted. "Errol's the family owl. All I've got is Scabbers." He pulled his pet rat abruptly from his pocket, holding it out for them to see. "Oh, and I want to get him checked over. I'm not sure Egypt agreed with him."  
Harry privately thought Ron was right. The rat looked skinny and didn't move as Ron held him out.

"There's a magical creature shop over there," Harry said, proud to be able to show off his newfound knowledge about Diagon Alley. "They'll probably have something for Scabbers and Hermione can get her owl."  
And that was that. After Hermione and Ron had paid for their ice cream the three of them (with the Auror trailing behind) made their way down the street and entered the Magical Menagerie.

As soon as they walked in Harry winced at the noise and Ron wrinkled his freckled nose at the smell. There was someone talking to the witch at the counter already, so Hermione drifted over to look at the owls and Harry and Ron stared at the weird creatures in the cages lining the walls.  
Glancing over at Hermione, Harry felt his stomach drop as he looked at the small cat padding towards her and rubbing up against her legs. Hermione crouched and began to stroke the little cat, and Harry was torn on whether to intervene.  
 _She wants an owl. Elena's just being friendly. As a cat. Hermione wouldn't … she doesn't even like cats. I think._

Ron approached the counter and Harry kept staring in horror as Hermione scooped Elena up and settled the cat into her arms. He watched seized with panic for a moment until Hermione set Elena down with a final pat on the head and approached the tawny owl cages.  
Letting out a sigh of relief, Harry glared at Elena, who had curled up on top of one of the travelling cases for sale then joined Ron at the counter.  
"-want a replacement, you can try this rat tonic," The witch was saying, pushing a red bottle towards Ron. She shifted her grip on Scabbers, and none of them noticed Elena jumping silently off from the travelling cases and slinking towards the counter.  
"Okay. How much would it-"  
Ron shouted as Elena leapt up onto his shoulder, digging her claws into him to try and stay balanced as he staggered back, then jumped off him and pounced for Scabbers, hissing.

The rat shot out from between the witch's hands and darted out of the shop, and Ron went racing after him, Harry in close pursuit. It took them a while to find the quivering rat, beneath a bin in the alley next to Quality Quidditch Supplies.  
"Honestly! Cats! They're awful things! Ugh!" Ron grumbled, stuffing Scabbers back in his pocket and straightening up. Harry wondered how Ron would react if he saw Elena.  
 _He won't have to. She's not coming to Hogwarts._

Hermione came out of the Magical Menagerie with a wide beaming smile on her face and a small, familiar white and spotted brown cat bundled up in her arms.  
"You got that thing? It tried to kill Scabbers!"  
"Oh be quiet Ron," Hermione admonished. "You didn't mean to, kitty, did you? No you didn't!"  
"But, but, I thought you wanted an owl!" Harry said, panicked.  
"Well I can always use the school owls if Hedwig is away, can't I?"  
"But…but…that cat wasn't even from the shop…"  
"I asked the witch there to check her over and she seems perfectly alright, and besides, the witch said she'd seen the cat around and fed it the other night, and it spent the entire time with the other animals and she was quite alright. Isn't she cute?"  
"No." Ron grumbled.  
"She came up to me as soon as we entered the store. I would say it was fate but I don't believe in that rubbish."  
 _No,_ Harry thought. _It's not fate. It's an interfering fugitive with an inability to hear the word no.  
_ Harry glared furiously at Elena, who licked her paw with an air of triumph.  
"Also," Hermione added with a victorious smirk in Ron's direction. "I can use the twenty Galleons Mum and Dad gave me to buy myself a nice _book_."

* * *

"Okay, don't freak out."

Sirius had obviously been so bored in the past hour since sunset when they had been meeting every night that he had set up a game where he took a long run up and tried to jump up onto a wheelie bin. He had just managed to jump up onto top of the bin and barked several times in celebration when Elena rushed in and transformed, brushing her dishevelled hair out of her face.  
He transformed and remained sat on top of the cracked, abandoned wheelie bin in the alley.  
"What did you do?"  
She told him.

Elena was tense, sitting cross-legged on the dirty floor, shivering, waiting for his reaction.  
"That's…" Sirius seemed lost for words. Elena winced.  
"That's _genius!_ " He laughed joyfully, jumping down off the wheelie bin. "You can be in Hogwarts, you can look after him, and you can be close to _Pettigrew_ and I don't know, I mean, stop him or something, but, that's genius Elena! That's great!"  
He pulled her up off the floor and engulfed her in a massive bear hug. Elena was more than a little surprised at his sudden display of affection, and when he jumped back with a wide delighted grin on his face she was pleased to see him so happy, and her face broke out into a bright smile in return. "I can't believe how he reacted."  
"And that's not even the funniest part." She smirked.  
Sirius raised his eyebrows. "No?"  
Elena's eyes flashed, amused. "She's called me Marilyn."

 **I hope you liked it?  
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Fly x**


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